Michel Houellebecq Quotes

Life is painful and disappointing. It is useless, therefore, to write new realistic novels. We generally know where we stand in relation to reality and don’t care to know any more.

The absence of the will to live is, alas, not sufficient to make one want to die.

Anything can happen in life, especially nothing.

If life is an illusion it's a pretty painful one.

An entire life spent reading would have fulfilled my every desire; I already knew that at the age of seven. The texture of the world is painful, inadequate; unalterable, or so it seems to me. Really, I believe that an entire life spent reading would have suited me best. Such a life has not been granted me...

It is in our relations with other people that we gain a sense of ourselves; it's that, pretty much, that makes relations with other people unbearable.

Nul ne peut voir par-dessus soi, écrit Schopenhauer pour faire comprendre l'impossibilité d'un échange d'idées entre deux individus d'un niveau intellectuel trop différent.

Il me dit: « Vous avez dû avoir peur. » Je réponds oui pour ne pas faire d'histoires, mais en fait je n'ai pas eu peur du tout, j'ai juste eu l'impression que j'allais crever dans les prochaines minutes ; c'est différent.

The world outside had its own rules, and those rules were not human.

It's a curious idea to reproduce when you don't even like life.