41 Quotes by Jean Giono

 He walked briskly.   He was all wrapped up in his joy.   He was filled with songs, packed in his throat and pressing against his teeth. He puckered up his lips.    It was a joy of which he wanted to savour all the smell and taste the juice as long as possible, like a sheep eating grass in the evening among the hills. He went on like that, until the beautiful silence had settled within him and around him, like a meadow.

I have always hated crowds. I like deserts, prisons, and monasteries. I have discovered, too, that there are fewer idiots at 3000 meters above sea level than down below.

I should like to write about what happens when fictive people encounter and are embellished by real people.

The sun's last finger let go of the pine up there. The sun fell behind the hills. A few drops of blood splashed the sky. Night washed them out with her grey hand.

All was iris-blue, earth and sky together, with a cluster of clouds in the west. The young sun made his way, knee-deep in the grass. The wind scattered the dew like a lively colt. It sent up flights of birds which swam for a while among the waves of the sky, as if drunk and dizzy from screaming, and then suddenly dropped, like handfuls of stones.

Elles étaient en touffes avec des racines d'or, épanouies, enfoncées dans les ténèbres et qui soulevaient des mottes luisantes de nuit.(à propos des étoiles)

On nous veut avec les stigmates des grandes écoles, je le veux avec les stigmates de la vie.

   She listened; she heard the dull thumping of her blood which seemed to be tramping on her with a heavy heel.    She passed her left hand across the night to feel the man's firm wrist, which was against her right hand. It was all knotted like a gnarled branch. It filled her left hand with warm flesh which was supple and finely nerved.    "I can't explain....They all have their women. Such a passion has seized the earth...such a passion!" 

Ce qui me dégoûte dans la guerre, c'est son imbécillité. J'aime la vie. Je n'aime même que la vie. C'est beaucoup, mais je comprends qu'on la sacrifie à une cause juste et belle.