Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Michel Houellebecq

Quote by Michel Houellebecq

“Een universitaire studie in de letteren leidt zoals iedereen weet nergens toe, behalve, voor de meest getalenteerde studenten, tot een universitaire onderwijscarrière in de letteren. [...]Zo'n studie is echter niet schadelijk en kan zelfs een marginaal nut hebben.”

Quote by Michel Houellebecq

Create image

Author

Michel Houellebecq
Michel Houellebecq

Michel Houellebecq is a French author known for his incisive social commentary and unique literary style. His works often explore themes of loneliness, consumerism, and the meaning of human existence in modern society. more

You May Also Like

“In Turkey, better cooks than me do not waste the rind, instead soaking the strips in water laced with pickling lime, then boiling it in sugar syrup for melon-rind jam. Sometimes, confectioners candy the rind into glacé sweets. So intense is the sugariness of certain Turkish melons that vendors pitch them to customers by calling out, 'Sherbet, sherbet!' Some of Turkey's finest, most-prized, and largest, melons are found in Diyarbakir, the de facto capital of the country's Kurds, in the south-east. Dovecotes there, especially by the banks of the Tigris River, where vine fruits thrive in the alluvial soil, hint at the location of melon fields. Nitrate-rich guano (manure) from pigeons and doves is said to heat and enrich the ground, thus adding to the uncommon sweetness of the often tiger-striped melons. Camels once brought these weighty fruits from the field to the city. There is much to learn about Turkish melons.”

TurkishMelons
Book:Cold Kitchen: A Year of Culinary Travels
Create image

“The scent, though, is its own feast. In the cutting and cubing of it, more of its hard-to-pin-down ambrosial smell is dispensed, rising up like fresh-cut grass melding with cool iris. Batting away the temptation to eat a few coral-red wedges over the sink, I indulge, instead, in the anticipation of pleasure, imagining how, when I finally get to it, the melon's singular watery crunchiness-- it is a cousin of the cucumber-- and its copious juiciness will be sorbet-like on the tongue, as fresh and awakening as a glass of soda.”

TasteScentTurkishMelons
Book:Cold Kitchen: A Year of Culinary Travels
Create image

“Rising demand for oil exposed Europe, and later America, to oil shocks - serious interruptions in supply. Like a pebble tossed into a pond, an oil shock creats ripples, or effects, felt everywhere. Oil shocks have two causes. The first is natural, because existing oil fields may not yield enough to satisfy demand. Scarcity results in higher prices for oil products, reducing our standard of living. Natural scarcity was not a problem in the world's major producing areas until recently. The second cause of oil shocks is political. Political shocks happen when governments of oil-producing countries reduce or halt supply to gain the upper hand in dealings with other governments. This is the case in the Middle East, where oil has often mixed with politics, religion, and blood. The reasons for this have shaped the history of recent times.”

PoliticsOilNatural Causes
Author:Albert Marrin
Create image