"Journeys, like artists, are born and not made. A thousand differing circumstances contribute to them, few of them willed or determined by the will-whatever we may think"
About this Quote
The subtext is a gentle rebuke to modern self-authorship. Durrell’s phrasing turns the will into a kind of unreliable narrator: "whatever we may think" lands like a raised eyebrow, acknowledging how invested we are in believing we chose the decisive moments of our lives. He isn’t denying agency so much as demoting it. A "thousand differing circumstances" suggests that what shapes a journey is usually the unglamorous stuff: missed connections, weather, money, illness, an overheard conversation, the friend of a friend who changes your route. The cumulative weight of those contingencies becomes the real composer.
Context matters because Durrell’s work - especially his Mediterranean writing and the Alexandria Quartet - is obsessed with place as a force that rewrites character. For him, cities aren’t backdrops; they’re co-authors. This quote folds that worldview into a compact credo: travel isn’t a consumer product, it’s an encounter with complexity. The point isn’t to surrender to randomness, but to respect how little of any meaningful passage is "willed" into being.
Quote Details
| Topic | Journey |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Durrell, Lawrence. (2026, January 15). Journeys, like artists, are born and not made. A thousand differing circumstances contribute to them, few of them willed or determined by the will-whatever we may think. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/journeys-like-artists-are-born-and-not-made-a-7553/
Chicago Style
Durrell, Lawrence. "Journeys, like artists, are born and not made. A thousand differing circumstances contribute to them, few of them willed or determined by the will-whatever we may think." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/journeys-like-artists-are-born-and-not-made-a-7553/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Journeys, like artists, are born and not made. A thousand differing circumstances contribute to them, few of them willed or determined by the will-whatever we may think." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/journeys-like-artists-are-born-and-not-made-a-7553/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
