“Is it by chance that the 18th century of France, the century of the "philosophy of enlightenment," did not produce any poets except the Marquis de Sade, who -- despite his participation in the events of this epoch -- expressed the first violent protest against the essential postulates of this period?”

“Almost overnight it became laughable to read writers like Cheever or Updike, who wrote about the suburbia Madeleine and most of her friends had grown up in, in favor of reading the Marquis de Sade, who wrote about anally deflowering virgins in eighteenth-century France. The reason de Sade was preferable was that his shocking sex scenes weren't about sex but politics. They were therefore anti-imperialist, anti-bourgeois, anti-patriarchal, and anti-everything a smart young feminist should be against.”

“In order to know virtue, we must first acquaint ourselves with vice. Marquis de Sade”

“18th century scientists, the French in particular, seldom did things simply if an absurdly demanding alternative was available.”

“I'm afraid, ha, ha, I find more inspiration in the Marquis de Sade.”

“Our epoch has been called the century of work. It is in fact the century of pain, misery and corruption.”