Julien Green: Paris Travel Quotes, Sourced From His Bilingual Classic
Julien Green was an American born in Paris who became one of France's own. He wrote around sixty-five books, almost all in French, and in 1971 became the first American elected to the Academie francaise. His short book Paris holds his real, sourced lines about the city and the act of walking it. This page gives those lines and flags the famous explorer quote honestly.
Search for Julien Green travel quotes and you meet a small surprise. Green is not filed as a travel writer at all. He was a novelist and one of the great diarists of the twentieth century, an American who wrote in French and spent almost his whole life in Paris. Yet his short book Paris, written late in his life, is some of the most exact writing about a single city ever set down. This page gives you Green’s sourced lines on Paris and walking, tells the story of how an American boy became a French master, and flags the famous explorer quote that travels the internet without a source.
Who Julien Green Was: The American Who Wrote in French
Julien Green was born on 6 September 1900 in Paris, the son of American parents from the South (Wikipedia, Julien Green). His mother raised him on stories of the old American South, and his nurses spoke to him in French, so he grew up bilingual and a little out of place in both worlds. He was educated at the Lycee Janson de Sailly, passed the French baccalaureat, and after a short spell at the University of Virginia returned to France for good.
Over a long life he wrote around sixty-five books, almost all of them in French. He is remembered for novels such as Leviathan (1929), Adrienne Mesurat and Moira (1950), and above all for his vast Journal, the diary he kept for decades. In 1971 he became the first American ever elected to the Academie francaise, taking the seat left by Francois Mauriac. He was a devout Roman Catholic and, by his own description, a flaneur who read the city by walking it. He died in Paris on 13 August 1998, aged 97.
Paris: The Small Book That Holds His Travel Lines
Green’s travel writing is really city writing, and almost all of it lives in one slim book. Paris was first published in French in 1983 and later issued by Penguin in a bilingual Modern Classics edition. It is less a guide than a walk, the record of a man crossing his own city with no destination and noticing everything, the light on an old wall, a staircase, the embankments of the Seine.
That is why a novelist sits on a travel quotes page. Green never wrote a guidebook and never told a reader where to go. What he left instead is attention, the discipline of looking at a place until it gives something back. The sourced lines below come straight from Paris.
His Best Books and Where to Start
Green is best met in two books: the short meditation on the city that holds his road lines, and one of his major novels. One confidently sourced starting point for each is the honest recommendation here.
1. Paris (Penguin Modern Classics)
Best for: Readers who want Green's real writing on Paris and walking.
His short, bilingual meditation on the city where he was born and died. This is the source for almost every sourced quote on this page, and the honest place to start with Green the walker.
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2. The Distant Lands
Best for: Readers who want to meet Green the novelist.
His sweeping novel of the American South before the Civil War, drawn from the world his mother described to him as a child. If the city writing sends you to his fiction, start here.
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Memorable Julien Green Travel Quotes, Sourced and Flagged
Notes on sourcing: the quotes below are drawn from Green’s book Paris, in the bilingual Penguin edition, so they carry a clear source. Page numbers are given where we have them. Where a line is lightly trimmed we say so. The famous explorer line is handled separately below, because it travels without a reliable source.
Paris, as I have said, is loath to surrender itself to people who are in a hurry; it belongs to the dreamers
— Julien Green Paris (Penguin), p. 59 Lightly trimmed at the original sentence break.
Every walk I have ever taken along its streets has seemed to create a fresh link, invisible yet tenacious, binding me to its very stones.
— Julien Green Paris (Penguin)
It [the banks of the Seine] is a good place, the lower embankment, to take your dreams for a walk and cast behind you those grand, futile glances that measure the time you have travelled.
— Julien Green Paris (Penguin), p. 57 The bracket is the translator's clarification of what it refers to.
It was as if the whole city hit me in the chest. That was how I got it back.
— Julien Green Paris (Penguin), p. 11 Written of his return to Paris at the end of the Second World War.
Starter path: read the first line slowly. Green is telling you the one rule for his city, that Paris gives nothing to people in a hurry and everything to people willing to dream their way through it.
The Famous Julien Green Quote You Should Flag
The line shared most often under his name is this: the greatest explorer on this earth never takes voyages as long as those of the man who descends to the depth of his heart. It is a beautiful thought, and it sits well with a writer who spent his life mapping his own interior in a diary. The problem is sourcing. It circulates across quote sites attached to his name, but without a book, page or date, and we could not tie it to a specific work with confidence.
So treat it the way a careful page should. Enjoy it if it speaks to you, attribute it to Green as widely reported, but reach for the page-sourced lines above when you want words you can stand behind. Sounding like Green is not the same as being sourced to Green.
Other Writers Who Read a City by Walking It
If Green’s way of knowing a place on foot speaks to you, these writers carry the same thread of attention to where they are.
- Ella Maillart: the Swiss adventurer who crossed Asia and wrote it down with the same level eye.
- Alain Ducasse: a chef who reads a place through its produce, another outsider who made France his subject.
- Colette, who wrote Paris and the French countryside from the inside, sense by sense.
Frequently Asked Questions About Julien Green
Did Julien Green write travel quotes?
Yes, in a sense. Green was a novelist and diarist rather than a travel writer, but his short book Paris (1983) is full of sourced reflections on the city and the act of walking it. That book is the best source for his travel lines.
Was Julien Green American or French?
Both, in a way. He was born in Paris in 1900 to American parents, wrote almost all of his work in French, and in 1971 became the first American elected to the Academie francaise.
What is the best Julien Green book to start with?
For his writing on place, start with Paris, his short bilingual meditation on the city. For his fiction, The Distant Lands is a strong entry point.
Did Julien Green really say the greatest explorer line?
It is widely attributed to him and fits his work, but it circulates without a reliable book, page or date. We flag it as widely attributed rather than presenting it as a page-sourced quote.
When was Julien Green born and when did he die?
He was born on 6 September 1900 in Paris and died there on 13 August 1998, aged 97.
Why a Novelist Belongs on a Travel Quotes Page
Julien Green never called himself a travel writer. He called himself a Parisian, an American one, and he proved that you do not have to cross the world to write great travel prose. You only have to look at one place hard enough. If you read a single book of his for the road, make it Paris. For more sourced voices, browse our full collection of travel quotes.
More Quote Collections Worth Your Time
- 100 Best Travel Quotes: the full library, organised by theme.
- Ella Maillart: sourced lines from a real Asian crossing.