Marguerite Duras

Writer, Filmmaker

Marguerite Duras was a French writer and filmmaker known for her poignant explorations of love and memory, particularly in her novel 'The Lover.'

Born
April 4, 1914
Died
March 19, 1996
Quotes
91
Rank
#244

About Marguerite Duras

Marguerite Duras — Life and Legacy

Marguerite Duras was a prominent French writer and filmmaker whose works delve into the intricacies of love and memory. Best known for her novel 'The Lover,' Duras's narratives often reflect her own experiences and the emotional landscapes of her characters. Her writing is marked by a unique style that blends poetic language with stark realism, creating a powerful exploration of human relationships. Duras's key ideas revolve around the tension between memory and reality, as seen in her quote, 'The lover is a kind of memory.' This encapsulates her belief that love is deeply influenced by our recollections, shaping how we connect with others. Her works frequently challenge conventional portrayals of love, presenting it as a complex interplay of desire, loss, and identity. Today, Duras's quotes resonate with readers, as they encapsulate the emotional depth and psychological nuance of human experience. Her ability to articulate the contradictions of love and memory continues to inspire and provoke thought, making her a significant figure in modern literature.

Quote collection

Marguerite Duras quotes (page 1 of 5)

91 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.

Marguerite Duras Writer, Filmmaker
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"The best way to fill time is to waste it."

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Marguerite Duras Writer, Filmmaker
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"I meet you. I remember you. Who are you? You’re destroying me. You’re good for me. How could I know this city was tailor-made for love? How could I know you fit my body like a glove? I like you. How unlikely. I like you. How slow all of a sudden. How sweet. You cannot know. You’re destroying me. You’re good for me. You’re destroying me. You’re good for me. I have time. Please, devour me. Deform me to the point of ugliness. Why not you? Why not you in this city and in this night, so like other cities and other nights you can hardly tell the difference? I beg of you."

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Marguerite Duras Writer, Filmmaker
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"Very early in my life it was too late."

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Marguerite Duras Writer, Filmmaker
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"Alcohol doesn't console, it doesn't fill up anyone's psychological gaps, all it replaces is the lack of God."

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Marguerite Duras Writer, Filmmaker
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"That she had so completely recovered her sanity was a source of sadness to her. One should never be cured of one's passion."

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Marguerite Duras Writer, Filmmaker
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"A book consists of two layers: on top, the readable layer ... and underneath, a layer that was inaccessible. You only sense its existence in a moment of distraction from the literal reading, the way you see childhood through a child. It would take forever to tell what you see, and it would be pointless."

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Marguerite Duras Writer, Filmmaker
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"I know it's not clothes that make women beautiful or otherwise, nor beauty care, nor expensive creams, nor the distinction of costliness of their finery. I know the problem lies elsewhere. I don't know where. I only know it isn't where women think."

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Marguerite Duras Writer, Filmmaker
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"When it's in a book I don't think it'll hurt any more ...exist any more. One of the things writing does is wipe things out. Replace them."

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Marguerite Duras Writer, Filmmaker
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"I've known you for years. Everyone says you were beautiful when you were young, but I want to tell you I think you're more beautiful now than then. Rather than your face as a young woman, I prefer your face as it is now. Ravaged."

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"You have to be very fond of men. Very, very fond. You have to be very fond of them to love them. Otherwise they're simply unbearable."

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Marguerite Duras Writer, Filmmaker
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"The words emerge from her body without her realizing it, as if she were being visited by the memory of a language long forsaken."

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Marguerite Duras Writer, Filmmaker
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"You alone became the outer surface of my life, the side I never see, and you will be that, the unknown part of me, until I die."

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Marguerite Duras Writer, Filmmaker
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"In love there are no vacations. No such thing. Love has to be lived fully with its boredom and all that."

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Marguerite Duras Writer, Filmmaker
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"It’s not that you have to achieve anything, it’s that you have to get away from where you are."

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"Suddenly, all at once, she knows, knows that he doesn't understand her, that he never will, that he lacks the power to understand such perverseness. And that he can never move fast enough to catch her."

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Marguerite Duras Writer, Filmmaker
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"Our mothers always remain the strangest, craziest people we've ever met."

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Marguerite Duras Writer, Filmmaker
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"In homosexual love the passion is homosexuality itself. What a homosexual loves, as if it were his lover, his country, his art, his land, is homosexuality."

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Marguerite Duras Writer, Filmmaker
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"Oh, how good it is to be with someone, sometimes."

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Marguerite Duras Writer, Filmmaker
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"He says he’s lonely, horribly lonely because of this love he feels for her. She says she’s lonely too. She doesn’t say why."

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Marguerite Duras Writer, Filmmaker
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"Words don't change their shape, they change their meaning, their function...They don't have a meaning of their own any more, they refer to other words that you don't know, that you've never read or heard...you've never seen their shape, but you feel...you suspect...they correspond to...an empty space inside you...or in the universe."

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