74 quotes found
Writer · French · 1956
French writer (born 1956)
“The most stupid religion is Islam.”
“Intimacy isnt something men talk about.”
“Intimacy isn’t something men talk about.”
“I was about as political as a bath towel.”
“The map is more interesting than the territory.”
“The absence of the will to live is, alas, not sufficient to make one want to die.”
“Anything can happen in life, especially nothing.”
“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. Reall...”
“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 dont care to know any more.”
“People often say that the English are very cold fish, very reserved, that they have a way of looking at things even tragedy with a sense of irony. Theres some truth in it; its pretty stupid of th...”
“Maybe I should have gone into politics. If you were a political activist, election season brought moments of intensity, whichever side you were on, and meanwhile here I was inarguably withering away,”
“You too, you took an interest in the world. That was long ago. I want you to cast your mind back to then. The domain of the rules was no longer enough for you; you were unable to love any longer in...”
“In societies like ours sex truly represents a second system of differentiation, completely independent of money; and as a system of differentiation it functions mercilessly. The effects of these tw...”
“The world outside had its own rules, and those rules were not human.”
“When you got right down to it, my dick was the one organ that hadnt presented itself to my consciousness through pain, only pleasure. Modest but robust, it had always served me faithfully. Or, you ...”
“The past is always beautiful. So, for that matter, is the future. Only the present hurts, and we carry it around like an abscess of suffering, our compassion between two infinities of happiness and...”
“The metaphysical mutation that gave rise to materialism and modern science in turn spawned two great trends: rationalism and individualism. Huxleys mistake was in having poorly evaluated the balanc...”
“That's precisely what's so extraordinary about you, you enjoy giving pleasure. Offering your body as an object of pleasure, giving pleasure unselfishly: that's what Westerners don't know how to do ...”
“Much, maybe too much, has been written about literature.”
“Much, maybe too much, has been written about literature. (I know better than anyone; Im an expert in the field). Yet the special thing about literature, the major art form of a Western civilization...”
“It's a curious idea to reproduce when you don't even like life.”
“If you control the children, you control the future.”
“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.”
“Olga was nice, Olga was nice and loving, Olga loved him, he repeated to himself with a growing sadness as he also realised that nothing would ever happen between them again, life sometimes offers y...”
