“We are proud of our ridiculousness. That’s what made our Surrealism. Proud and ashamed of everything at the same time. I think that’s my definition of Belgium.”

Geert van Istendael

“I am at home everywhere and nowhere. I am never a stranger and I never quite belong.”

Georges Simenon

“More and more I understand that it’s very fine not to know where you come from.”

Amélie Nothomb

“We cannot accept the world as it is. Each day we should wake up foaming at the mouth because of the injustice of things.”

Hugo Claus

“Forgetting is a strange power, because it makes memory possible.”

Stefan Hertmans

“In 1830 Belgium became independent after an opera performance; in 1959 Congo demands independence after a soccer match.”

David Van Reybrouck

“It is preferable not to travel with a dead man.”

Henri Michaux

“Remember that happiness is as contagious as gloom.”

Maurice Maeterlinck

“Everything we see hides another thing… There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us.”

René Magritte