I find it an absolute pleasure to read travel guides, especially the Michelin guides, and their description of places I know I'll probably never visit. I spend a large part of my life reading descriptions of restaurants. Michel Houellebecq More Quotes by Michel Houellebecq More Quotes From Michel Houellebecq The great advantage of a novel is you can put in whatever comes into your head - it has the same shape as the human brain. Michel Houellebecq advantage shapes brain Just like unrestrained economic liberalism, and for similar reasons, sexual liberalism produces phenomena of absolute pauperization. Some men make love every day; others five or six times in their life, or never. Some make love with dozens of women, others with none. It’s what’s known as ‘the law of the market’… In a totally liberal sexual system certain people have a varied and exciting erotic life; others are reduced to masturbation and solitude. Michel Houellebecq law men people To the end, I will remain a child of Europe, of worry and of shame. I have no message of hope to deliver. For the West, I do not feel hatred. At most I feel a great contempt. I know only that every single one of us reeks of selfishness, masochism and death. We have created a system in which it has simply become impossible to live, and what's more, we continue to export it. Michel Houellebecq worry europe children Those who love life do not read. Nor do they go to the movies, actually. No matter what might be said, access to the artistic universe is more or less entirely the preserve of those who are a little fed up with the world. Michel Houellebecq love-life littles world Irony won't save you from anything; humour doesn't do anything at all. You can look at life ironically for years, maybe decades; there are people who seem to go through most of their lives seeing the funny side, but in the end, life always breaks your heart. Doesn't matter how brave you are, or how reserved, or how much you've developed a sense of humour, you still end up with your heart broken. That's when you stop laughing. Michel Houellebecq heart people years The world outside had its own rules, and those rules were not human. Michel Houellebecq humans world Anything can happen in life, especially nothing. Michel Houellebecq anything-can-happen happens The terrible predicament of a beautiful girl is that only an experienced womanizer, someone cynical and without scruple, feels up to the challenge. More often than not, she will lose her virginity to some filthy lowlife in what proves to be the first step in an irrevocable decline. Michel Houellebecq cynical girl beautiful The Americans are completely stupid. The intellectual level in any single European country is higher than in America. Michel Houellebecq stupid country america The dream of all men is to meet little sluts who are innocent but ready for all forms of depravity—which is what, more or less, all teenage girls are. Michel Houellebecq teenage girl dream The love of a dog is a pure thing. He gives you a trust which is total. You must not betray it. Michel Houellebecq betray dog giving The most stupid religion is Islam. Michel Houellebecq islam stupid I've lived so little that I tend to imagine I'm not going to die; it seems improbable that human existence can be reduced to so little; one imagines, in spite of oneself, that sooner or later something is bound to happen. A big mistake. A life can just as well be both empty and short. The days slip by indifferently, leaving neither trace nor memory; and then all of a sudden they stop. Michel Houellebecq leaving mistake memories The absence of the will to live is, alas, not sufficient to make one want to die. Michel Houellebecq boredom absence want Without beauty a girl is unhappy because she has missed her chance to be loved. People do not jeer at her, they are not cruel to her, but it is as if she were invisible, no eyes follow her as she walks. People feel uncomfortable when they are with her. They find it easier to ignore her. A girl who is exceptionally beautiful, on the other hand, who has something which too far surpasses the customary seductive freshness of adolescence, appears somehow unreal. Great beauty seems invariably to portend some tragic fate. Michel Houellebecq girl eye beautiful A source of permanent, accessible pleasure, our genitals exist. The god who created our misfortune, who made us short-lived, vain and cruel, has also provided this form of meagre compensation. If we couldn't have sex from time to time, what would life be? A futile struggle against joints that stiffen, caries that form. All of which, moreover, is as uninteresting as humanly possible - the collagen which makes muscles stiffen, the appearance of microbic cavities in the gums. Michel Houellebecq gum struggle sex Why am I popular? I don't know. Is it a mistake? I should think it's a mistake somewhere. Michel Houellebecq should mistake thinking Of course, we can distinguish between males and females; we can also, if we choose, distinguish between different age categories; but any more advanced distinction comes close to pedantry, probably a result of boredom. A creature that is bored elaborates distinctions and hierarchies. According to Hutchinson and Rawlins, the development of systems of hierarchical dominance within animal societies does not correspond to any practical necessity, nor to any selective advantage; it simply constitutes a means of combating the crushing boredom of life in the heart of nature. Michel Houellebecq crush heart mean In order to pass the time I told him the story of the German who ate the other German whom he’d met on the internet. Michel Houellebecq internet stories order It's a curious idea to reproduce when you don't even like life. Michel Houellebecq curious ideas
