“The absence of the will to live is, alas, not sufficient to make one want to die.”
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Author detail
Michel Thomas, dit Michel Houellebecq est un écrivain, poète, essayiste et acteur français né le 26 février 1956 à Saint-Pierre (La Réunion). Il est révélé par les romans *Extension du domaine de la lutte* (1994) et surtout *Les Particules élémentaires* (1998), qui le fait connaître d'un large public. Ce dernier roman et son livre suivant *Plateforme* (2001) sont considérés comme précurseurs dans la littérature française, notamment pour leur description de la misère affective et sexuelle de l'homme occidental dans les années 1990 et 2000. Avec *La Carte et le Territoire,* Michel Houellebecq reçoit le prix Goncourt en 2010, après avoir été plusieurs fois pressenti pour ce prix. Son œuvre est traduite en plus de 40 langues. ---------- Michel Thomas, known as Michel Houellebecq, is a French writer, poet, essayist, and actor born on February 26, 1956, in Saint-Pierre, Réunion. He rose to prominence with the novels *Whatever* *(Extension du domaine de la lutte,* 1994) and especially *The Elementary Particles* *(Les Particules élémentaires,* 1998), which brought him to the attention of a wide audience. The latter novel and his subsequent book, *Platform* (2001), are considered groundbreaking in French literature, particularly for their depiction of the emotional and sexual deprivation of Western man in the 1990s and 2000s. With *The Map and the Territory* *(La Carte et le Territoire),* Michel Houellebecq received the Prix Goncourt in 2010, after having been a contender several times. His work has been translated into more than 40 languages.
Quotes
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“The absence of the will to live is, alas, not sufficient to make one want to die.”
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“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...”
“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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“The fact is, most people live their lives without worrying too much about these supposedly philosophical questions. They think about them only when they’re facing some kind of tragedy – a se...”
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“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. There’s some truth in it; it’s pretty s...”
“L'absence d'envie de vivre, hélas, ne suffit pas pour avoir envie de mourir.”
“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.”
“I was lucky to meet you, yes.' 'Me too . . .' she said, looking me in the eyes. 'I was lucky too. The men I know are a disaster, not one of them believes in love; so they give you this big s...”
“I think poetry is the only domain where a writer you like can truly be said to influence you, because you read and reread a poem so many times that it simply drills itself into your head.”
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“A reactionary is someone who wants to return to a previous state - that's never a possibility in my books. For me, everything's irreversible in the life of a society, as well as an individua...”
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“When you read the Koran, you give up. At least the Bible is very beautiful because Jews have an extraordinary literary talent.”
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“I tend to think that good and evil exist and that the quantity in each of us is unchangeable. The moral character of people is set, fixed until death.”
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“Using a big word like 'plagiarism'... always causes some damage. It will always do lasting damage, like accusations of racism.”
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“I admit that invective is one of my pleasures. This only brings me problems in life, but that's it. I attack, I insult. I have a gift for that, for insults, for provocation. So I am tempted...”
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“Active people don't change the world profoundly; ideas do. Napoleon is less important in world history than Jean-Jacques Rousseau.”
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“I prefer reading to writing. Reading changes your world view. Writing changes absolutely nothing. Except, of course, when it makes you rich.”
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