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

My novels are all ideas.

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

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.

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.

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

As a teenager, Michel believed that suffering conferred dignity on a person. Now he had to admit that he had been wrong. What conferred dignity on people was television.