Michel Houellebecq quotes

"Depressive lucidity, usually described as a radical withdrawal from ordinary human concerns, generally manifests itself by a profound indifference to things which are genuinely of minor interest. Thus it is possible to imagine a depressed lover, while the idea of a depressed patriot seems frankly inconceivable."

Michel Houellebecq, Les particules élémentaires

"Adolescence is not only an important period in life, but that it is the only period where one may speak of life in the full sense of the word."

Michel Houellebecq, 'Extension du domaine de la lutte'

"I don't subscribe to the theory that we only become truly adult when our parents die; we never become truly adult."

Michel Houellebecq, from Plateforme: Au milieu du monde


"People drag their progeny around with them like a ball and chain, like some terrible deadweight that hinders their every move - and that, as often as not, effectively winds up killing them."
Michel Houellebecq, from Plateforme: Au milieu du monde

"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, H.P. Lovecraft: Against Nature, Against Life

"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, Les particules elémentaire