Joris-Karl Huysmans

"Menacing lines of black tomorrows on the horizon."

"The only people who are worth knowing are either saints, scoundrels or madmen; at least their conversation is always interesting. Sensible people are dull by definition, because they are always harping on to the same boring tune about everyday life. They form part of the crowd, the more intelligent part perhaps, but the crowd for all that, and I’m sick of them."

"How inferior the human machine is, compared to man-made machines. They can be decoked, unscrewed, oiled and parts replaced. Decidedly, nature is not a very wonderful thing."

"I wish to confound all these people, to create a work of art of a supernatural realism and of a spiritualist naturalism. I wish to prove... that nothing is explained in the mysteries which surround us."

"Worshiping the Devil is no more insane than worshiping God... It is precisely at the moment when positivism is at its high-water mark that mysticism stirs into life and the follies of occultism begin."