I Write Books To Relieve ­myself Of

I Think The '80s Created Me, In A Way, When I Look Back On That Time, But I Don't Necessarily Think That A Lot Of My Choices, And A Lot Of Things That I Did, And A Lot Of Things That Happened To Me - Or I Let Happen To Me - Were About That Decade.

Eventually Everyone Has To Hit The Dark Side Of Life - Someone Doesn't Like You, Someone Doesn't Like Your Work, Someone Doesn't Love You Back... People Die. What We Have Is A Generation Who Are Super-confident And Super-positive About Things, But When The Least Bit Of Darkness Enters Their Lives, They're Paralyzed.

I Stare Into A Thin, Web-like Crack Above The Urinal's Handle And Think To Myself That If I Were To Disappear Into That Crack, Say Somehow Miniaturize And Slip Into It, The Odds Are Good That No One Would Notice I Was Gone. No... One... Would... Care. In Fact Some, If They Noticed My Absence, Might Feel An Odd, Indefinable Sense Of Relief. This Is True: The World Is Better Off With Some People Gone. Our Lives Are Not All Interconnected. That Theory Is Crock. Some People Truly Do Not Need To Be Here.

Michel Houellebecq Is The Most Interesting, Provocative And Important European Novelist Of My Generation. Period. No One Else Comes Close. He Has Written Two Or Maybe Three Great Books, And His Latest, The Map And The Territory, Is One Of Them.

It's The Rare Book That's Able To Transport You In A Way That A Movie Does.