“To others, the universe seems decent because decent people have gelded eyes. That is why they fear lewdness. They are never frightened by the crowing of a rooster or when strolling under a starry heaven. In general, people savor the "pleasures of the flesh" only on condition that they be insipid.
But as of then, no doubt existed for me: I did not care for what is known as "pleasures of the flesh" because they really are insipid; I cared only for what is classified as "dirty." On the other hand, I was not even satisfied with the usual debauchery, because the only thing it dirties is debauchery itself, while, in some way or other, anything sublime and perfectly pure is left intact by it. My kind of debauchery soils not only my body and my thoughts, but also anything I may conceive in its course, that is to say, the vast starry universe, which merely serves as a backdrop.”
― Georges Bataille, quote from Story of the Eye
“Extreme seductiveness is at the boundary of horror”
― Georges Bataille, quote from Story of the Eye
“We did not lack modesty—on the contrary—but something urgently drove us to defy modesty together as immodestly as possible.”
― Georges Bataille, quote from Story of the Eye
“I remember that one day, when we were in a car tooling along at top speed,we crashed into a cyclist, an apparently very young and very pretty girl. Her head was almost totally ripped off by the wheels. For a long time, we were parked a few yards beyond without getting out, fully absorbed in the sight of the corpse. The horror and despair at so much bloody flesh, nauseating in part, and in part very beautiful, was fairly equivalent to our usual impression upon seeing one another.”
― Georges Bataille, quote from Story of the Eye
“That discourse one might call the poetry of transgression is also knowledge. He who transgresses not only breaks a rule. He goes somewhere that the others are not; and he knows something the others don’t know.”
― Georges Bataille, quote from Story of the Eye
“The fact that the site of narrative is an ideal topos disqualifies neither pornography nor science fiction from being literature. Such”
― Georges Bataille, quote from Story of the Eye
“To others, the universe seems decent because decent people have gelded eyes. That is why they fear lewdness. They are never frightened by the crowing of a rooster or when strolling under a starry heaven. In general, people savour the “pleasures of the flesh” only on condition that they be insipid.”
― Georges Bataille, quote from Story of the Eye
“We pedaled rapidly, without laughing or speaking, peculiarly satisfied with our mutual presence, akin to one another in the common isolation of lewdness, weariness, and absurdity.”
― Georges Bataille, quote from Story of the Eye
Georges Bataille
Born place: in Billon, Puy-de-Dôme, France
Born date September 10, 1897
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“We first knew something was up when the construction chief pulled out a stethoscope and started listening to the wall.”
― Billy Crystal, quote from Still Foolin' 'Em: Where I've Been, Where I'm Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys
“Soon college would be out, I would join the ranks of the matriculated, and the real world would steal me for one of their own.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, quote from The Curiosities: A Collection of Stories
“I wasn't never gonna run off again, no matter how bad things got. But I wasn't gonna be too scared to love the folks that took the time to love me back, and I sure wasn't gonna chase them that don't. And I was gonna spend the rest of my life asking questions and looking behind everything that happened, so I could find the gifts I got tucked inside me.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“What struck me most was his crooked grin, like he saw the world in his own special way and got a kick out of it.”
― Jeannette Walls, quote from The Silver Star
“I’d be anything and everything you wanted me to be, if you would give me the chance.”
― Katie Ashley, quote from The Pairing
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