MICHEL HOUELLEBECQ

When you read the Koran, you give up. At least the Bible is very beautiful because Jews have an extraordinary literary talent.

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.

In my own writing, I think of myself as a realist who exaggerates a little.

I'd say that the question whether love still exists plays the same role in my novels as the question of God's existence in Dostoevsky.

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 individual's.

I think that if I am notorious, it is because other people have decided that this is how I should be.

The press may hate me, and I know my battles with them are not over, but that doesn't matter.

Using a big word like 'plagiarism'... always causes some damage. It will always do lasting damage, like accusations of racism.

My novels are all ideas.

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.

You can't be a crazy rebel in the face of death, it's not a fitting attitude.

I think that if writers don't speak about real life, it's because they don't know it.

When a country is strong... it accepts any dose of pessimism from its writers.

The Americans are completely stupid. The intellectual level in any single European country is higher than in America.

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.

I think that there is a sharp contrast for most people between life at university, where they meet lots of people, and the moment when they enter the workforce, when they basically no longer meet anyone. Life becomes dull. So as a result people get married to have a personal life. I could elaborate but I think everyone understands.

I prefer reading to writing. Reading changes your world view. Writing changes absolutely nothing. Except, of course, when it makes you rich.

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.

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 to use it.

I think it's more difficult to live without a religion, definitely.

You know, you don't have to have permanent opinions. You can think, every morning, 'I love the world' and go to bed every night thinking, 'I hate the world.'

Those who think they know me are simply lacking in information.

Active people don't change the world profoundly; ideas do. Napoleon is less important in world history than Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Why am I popular? I don't know. Is it a mistake? I should think it's a mistake somewhere.

There is no point in asking me general questions because I am always changing my mind.