PARIS QUOTES IV
quotations about Paris, France
Paradoxically, the freedom of Paris is associated with a persistent belief that nothing ever changes. Paris, they say, is the city that changes least. After an absence of twenty or thirty years, one still recognizes it.
MARGUERITE DURAS
"Tourists in Paris", Outside: Selected Writings
Good talkers are only found in Paris.
FRANCOIS VILLON
Des Femmes de Paris
There is but one Paris and however hard living may be here, and if it became worse and harder even--the French air clears up the brain and does good--a world of good.
VINCENT VAN GOGH
Vincent Van Gogh: Ever Yours: the Essential Letters
Paris is planted in my heart.
ENDRE ADY
attributed, Sandra Gustafson's Great Sleeps Paris
Send me 300 francs; that sum will enable me to go to Paris. There, at least, one can cut a figure and surmount obstacles. Everything tells me I shall succeed. Will you prevent me from doing so for the want of 100 crowns?
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
letter to his uncle, June 1791
We'll always have Paris.
HUMPHREY BOGART
Casablanca
Paris was a museum displaying exactly itself.
JEFFREY EUGENIDES
The Marriage Plot
If Paris affords a thousand enjoyments to the man of fortune, it may truly be said that, without money, Paris is the most melancholy abode in the world. Privations are then the more painful, because desires and even wants are rendered more poignant by the ostentatious display of every object which might satisfy them.
FRANCIS WILLIAM BLAGDON
Paris as it was and as it is
Yea, Paris is a festive ton -- a festive
Ton for all! Skate o'er on joy --
Thin crust of gilded, polished joy!
What matters it if Hell's beneath?
WILLIAM BATCHELDER GREENE
"Paris the Ton", Cloudrifts at Twilight
My Paris is not the city of champagne and caviar. My Paris is a pot full of red beans and rice and an apartment full of old friends and glasses tinkling ... the warmth of the big Thanksgiving dinners I had every year for my old and dear friends. My Paris is the enchantment of wandering through an old museum, hand in hand with an old friend from Hollywood, lost in the wonder of Rodin. My Paris is the magic of looking up the Champs Élysées from the Place de la Concorde and being warmed by the merry madness of the lights.
HAZEL SCOTT
"What Paris Means to Me", Negro Digest, November 1961
Paris is a city of villages, each quartier, or neighborhood, its own little universe.
AMY THOMAS
Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light
Even the pigeons are dancing, kissing,
going in circles, mounting each other.
Paris is the city of love,
even for the birds.
SAMANTHA SCHUTZ
I Don't Want To Be Crazy
It is not in mere sport that Paris has been called a hell. Take the phrase for truth. There all is smoke and fire, everything gleams, crackles, flames, evaporates, dies out, then lights up again, with shooting sparks, and is consumed.
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
The Girl with the Golden Eyes
This is but a nibble of the Paris I love. Everyone comes away from a trip to Paris with a list of favorites. The most important thing on a visit to Paris is to remain open to the possibilities of discovery. Stroll the city's streets like the quintessential flaneur, with no plans and only for the thrill of the journey. Paris is the kind of city where you can get happily lost in just about any neighborhood and discover the most charming scenes: a gorgeous white cat resting on a windowsill dressed in lacy white curtains, Parisians kissing on a park bench, a sexy French man parking his motorcycle. Take a seat at the famous Café de Flore--where many famous writers, including Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir--once hung out, and practice the art of conversation, French-style. Walk, walk, walk. There's a view of the Eiffel Tower waiting for you when you least expect it. I never tire of Paris!
FABIOLA SANTIAGO
Reclaiming Paris: A Novel