"The New York Times - The Opinion Pages", commentary about the November 2015 Paris attacks http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/21/opinion/how-frances-leaders-failed-its-people.html?_r=0 (21 November 2015)

“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.”

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Michel Houellebecq

Source: H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life

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

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Michel Houellebecq

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

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Michel Houellebecq livre Les Particules élémentaires

Source: The Elementary Particles

“Love binds, and it binds forever. Good binds while evil unravels. Separation is another word for evil; it is also another word for deceit.”

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Michel Houellebecq livre Les Particules élémentaires

Source: The Elementary Particles

“Tenderness is a deeper instinct than seduction, which is why it is so hard to give up hope.”

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Michel Houellebecq livre Les Particules élémentaires

Source: The Elementary Particles

“Not having anything around to read is dangerous: you have to content yourself with life itself, and that can lead you to take risks.”

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Michel Houellebecq livre Plateforme

Source: Platform

“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.”

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Michel Houellebecq

Source: H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life

“It’s hard to understand other people, to know what’s hidden in their hearts, and without the assistance of alcohol it might never be done at all.”

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Michel Houellebecq

Source: Submission

“… beds last on an average much longer than marriages…”

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Michel Houellebecq livre Extension du domaine de la lutte

Source: Whatever

“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 peace.”

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Michel Houellebecq Soumission

Source: Soumission

“Only literature can grant you access to a spirit from beyond the grave—a more direct, more complete, deeper access than you’d have in conversation with a friend.”

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Michel Houellebecq

Source: Submission

“To increase desires to an unbearable level whilst making the fulfillment of them more and more inaccessible: this was the single principle upon which Western society was based.”

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Michel Houellebecq livre La Possibilité d'une île

Source: The Possibility of an Island

“Separation is another word for evil; it is also another word for deceit. All that exists is a magnificent interweaving, vast and reciprocal.”

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Michel Houellebecq livre Les Particules élémentaires

Source: Atomised

“He doesn't know it yet, but the infinity of childhood is brief.”

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Michel Houellebecq livre Les Particules élémentaires

Source: The Elementary Particles

“To give a man 5 sous because he is poor and has no bread is perfect, but to give him a blowjob because he has no girlfriend is too much of a good thing: you don't have to do that.”

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Michel Houellebecq