Born 1954. French. Female. A Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Ecole Superieur of Paris. Her groundbreaking work If Not Now (1979) earned her worldwide recognition.
On beauty:
Beauty is very good and very rare. Beautiful people often worry that it is not just that they are beautiful and others are not so much. But it is not good to worry. Everything is very random and contingent, so they should be thankful. Also, the nice body will perish one day, so it's important to have sexual intercourse as often as possible before that unpleasant time.
On
Ayn Rand:
On the right track but a bit dull. Not enough dark poetry. The poetry that is not very dark is not good poetry. Also, having a dollar sign over your coffin is plain silly. Dark is not silly.
On darkness:
I do not really consider my metaphysics as dark per se. Unless you call the shattering of illusions that cloud people's perception of reality as darkness. Truth can seem menacing, you know? To paraphrase what someone said about quantum physics, if one is not terrorised by the reality, then it means one does not understand it.
On being voted the Sexiest Philosopher of the Decade by Vogue:
I must say I like Vogue. There are many stylish and very sexy men and women on the pages of this magazine. I especially like the glossy pages, so pleasant to touch it. All is very artificial, but artifice is good, if only it is stylish. Vogue is very stylish.
On weakness and ugliness:
I despise ugly and weak and muddled people. I especially hate muddled people. Unfortunately most people are ugly, weak or muddled. Usually all at the same time. It is sometimes difficult for me to interact with them, but often I have no choice. Oh, well.
On sex:
I must say I like sex very much. Good sex can give one enormous pleasure. Best sex should always be mechanical and without scruples. One must give pleasure and take pleasure as much as possible and the genitals must always be stimulated thoroughly. Young people don't have enough sex. I know I didn't. Well, obviously I had very much sex, but now I think I could have some more. I was too discriminating and had silly idealist scruples. Then I took on philosophy.
On Michel Houellebecq:
Very clever and likes sex, but deep down too much scruples. Ugly. Also, bald. I don't do bald.
On happiness:
Please, there is no time for silly.
Addendum:
Caterine Vauban's life has been unkindly parodied in a deeply muddled and profoundly silly Hollywood comedy. Ms. Vauban is said to have undertaken legal action. (Although, off the record, she admitted Isabelle Huppert was "just stylish enough" and her performance was "somewhat pleasing aesthetically").