Julien Green

“The greatest explorer on this earth never takes voyages as long as those of the man who descends to the depth of his heart.”

“Anderswo, morgen, das sind für Sie immer noch magische Worte. Aber sie werden entdecken: anderswo, das ist hier, und morgen haben wir bereits.”

“Правда только в качании веток на фоне неба"Il n'ya de vrai que le balancement des branches mis dans le ciel”

“The novelist is like a scout commissioned to go and see what is happening in the depth of the soul. He comes back and reports what he has observed.”

“But nowadays my heart is empty and the boxwood has lost its magic scent; yes, absolutely and entirely. The creature that I was no longer exists. When I speak to her she does not understand me; I think of her, already, as of some one I have known but who no longer has any connection with myself. This sort of death of part of oneself strikes terror into my heart.Life presents itself to me as a progressive series of annihilations, until in time one arrives at the general destruction of all memory and the barren slumber of one's conscience.”

“Faith means walking on the waters.”

“In growing older, we become our parents.”

“I enter the world called real as one enters a mist. Our life is a book that writes itself and whose principal themes sometimes escape us. We are like characters in a novel who do not always understand what the author wants of them. I don't want to go on playing in a world where everyone cheats. Where everyone cheats - not only men and women, but sometimes even God.”

“A novelist is like a scout commissioned to go and see what is happening in the depth of the soul. He comes back and reports what he has observed. He never lives on the surface but only inhabits the darkest regions”

“Notre vie est un livre qui s'écrit tout seul. Nous sommes des personnages de roman qui ne comprennent pas toujours bien ce que veut l'auteur.”

“Die Welt war voll von Leuten, die ihren Weg wußten, die einen hierhin, die andern dorthin. Wo, in diesem System aus Sorgen und Freuden, war mein Platz? Ich empfand mich als das reichste und zugleich nutzloseste der Wesen. Wie war es nur möglich, daß Menschen bereit waren, zum Beispiel stundenlang die Säle des Luxembourg zu bewachen, oder im Senat vor sich hin zu dösen, oder in einem Ladenkontor Rechnungen zu schreiben? Was besagte diese Ordnung, die das Leben abtötete? Denn allein die Tatsache 'Leben' ist bedrückend, und man gewöhnt sich daran wohl nur, indem man sich mit idiotischen Beschäftigungen überhäuft. Ich aber war von meinem bloßen Dasein erschöpft.”

“ La beauté est un prodige qu'un rien peut anéantir et qui ne devrait s'admirer que de loin, elle s'efface d'une manière aussi difficilement explicable que sa présence même et l'homme n'y porte jamais qu'une main sacrilège. ”

“On ne sait jamais quand la vie va vous trahir ; inutile de compter sur le lendemain, ni même sur l'heure qui va suivre ; il n'y a de certain que la mort.”

“Il n'y a pas de hasard, il n'y a que des méchancetés du sort et ses perfidies, préparées de longue main, n'ont cette apparence fortuite que parce que les dessous nous en échappent.”

“Bom ou mau, aquilo que sai da Paris é Paris, seja uma carta, um pedaço de pão, um par de sapatos ou um poema.”

“A alma de uma grande cidade não se deixa apreender facilmente; é preciso, para se comunicar com ela, termo-nos aborrecido, termos de algum modo sofrido nos lugares que a circunscrevem.”

“...quando me passeio por Passy parece-me que deambulo por dentro de mim mesmo e que tropeço incessantemente na minha infância.”

“A cidade, efectivamente, sorri apenas àqueles que se aproximam dela e que deambulam pelas suas ruas; a esses, ela fala numa linguagem tranquilizadora e familiar, mas a alma de Paris só se revela de longe e do alto, e é no silêncio do céu que se escuta o imenso grito patético de orgulho e de fé que ela eleva na direcção das nuvens.”