When I reflect that one man, armed only with his own physical and moral resources, was able to cause this land of Canaan to spring from the wasteland…

- Jean Giono

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 le…

- Jean Giono

Spring sprang suddenly onto the land.

- Jean Giono

Civilization tries to persuade us we are going towards something, a distant goal. We have forgotten that our only goal is to live, to live each and e…

- Jean Giono

From the time we began to build houses and cities, since we invented the wheel, we have not advanced one step toward happiness. We have always been i…

- Jean Giono

There are also times in life when a person has to rush off in pursuit of hopefulness.

- Jean Giono

All civilized people see the day beginning at dawn or a little after or a long time after or whatever time their work begins; this they lengthen acco…

- Jean Giono

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

- Jean Giono

The Italians are said to be noisy and to gesticulate, but that is a libel dreamed up by the English.

- Jean Giono