“Drinking brought oblivion. The world was responsible, but how could you blame the world, the world that imposed a life that the people around us had no choice but to try to forget — with drinking, by drinking.” DrinkingInjusticeOblivion Book:Qui a tué mon père Source: Qui a tué mon père
“When December comes, you say you wish the holidays were already over and done with and well behind us, and I think you pretend to hate happiness in order to make yourself believe that, if your life seems an unhappy one, at least you’re the one who chose it. As if you wanted to pretend you had some control over your own unhappiness. As if you wanted to give the impression that, if your life was too hard, you wanted it that way, out of disgust with pleasure, out of a loathing for joy.” HappinessPleasureUnhappiness Book:Qui a tué mon père Source: Qui a tué mon père
“She didn't realise that her family, her parents, her brothers and sisters, even her children, pretty much everyone in the village, had had the same problems, and what she called mistakes were, in fact, no more and no less than the perfect realisation of the normal course of things.” FateWorking ClassHierarchySocial Norms Book:The End of Eddy Source: The End of Eddy
“A final memory. A few months ago, in the garden of a teahouse where I’d suggested we meet, she told me how she had once been called to the school by my teacher when I was six years old. The teacher wanted to tell her—at least this is what she claimed—that she, the teacher, found my behavior different from that of the other children, that I spoke of dreams and desires that were too grandiose, ambitions that were abnormal for children my age. She said that the others wanted to become firemen or policemen, but I spoke of becoming the king or the president of the republic; that I swore that as soon as I grew up, I’d take my mother far away from my father and that I’d buy her a château. I would like for this book—this story of her—to be, in some way, the home in which she might take refuge.” FamilyClass Book:Combats et métamorphoses d'une femme Source: Combats et métamorphoses d'une femme
“What we call history is nothing but the story of the same emotions, the same joys, reproduced across bodies and time” HistoryEmotions Book:Qui a tué mon père Source: Qui a tué mon père
“Why do I feel as though I'm writing a sad story, when my aim was to tell the story of a liberation?” WritingLiberationMothers Book:Combats et métamorphoses d'une femme Source: Combats et métamorphoses d'une femme
“I'd gotten so used to seeing her unhappy at home that the joy on her face seemed scandalous to me, a deceit, a lie that had to be exposed as soon as possible.” HappinessChildhoodMotherhood Book:Combats et métamorphoses d'une femme Source: Combats et métamorphoses d'une femme
“Le bruit est partout, à toutes les heures du jour et de la nuit, presque autonome par rapport aux personnes qui sont censées le produire, le bruit pénètre les corps par le conduit auditif et se répercute dans chaque parcelle de l'organisme, le bruit harcèle le silence des organes.” Bruit Book:Histoire de la violence Source: Histoire de la violence
“(...) comme si la jeunesse n'était en rien une données biologique, une simple question d'âge ou de moment de la vie, mais plutôt une sorte de privilège réservé à ceux qui peuvent - de par leur situation - jouir de toutes ces expériences, de tous ces affects que l'on regroupe sous le nom d'adolescence.” JeunesseClasse Sociale Book:En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule Source: En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule
“September 2017 Emmanuel Macron condemns the “laziness” of those in France who, according to him, are blocking his reforms. You’ve always known that this word is reserved for people like you, people who can’t work because they live too far from large towns, who can’t find work because they were driven out of the educational system too soon, without a diploma, who can’t work anymore because life in the factory has mangled their back. We don’t use the word lazy to describe a boss who sits in an office all day ordering other people around. We’d never say that. When I was little, you were always saying, obsessively, I’m not lazy, because you knew this insult hung over you, like a specter you wished to exorcize.” ViolenceLazinessWorking ClassRuling ClassMacron Book:Qui a tué mon père Source: Qui a tué mon père
“Ils pensaient que j'avais fait le choix d'être efféminé, comme une esthétique de moi même que j'aurais poursuivies pour leur déplaire.” Classe SocialeHomosexualité Book:En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule Source: En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule
“Tout se passe comme si, dans le village, les femmes faisaient des enfants pour devenir des femmes, sinon elles n'en sont pas vraiment. Elles sont considérées comme des lesbiennes, des frigides.” GenreClasse Sociale Author:Édouard Louis