Marguerite Donnadieu (April 4, 1914 – March 3, 1996), better known as Marguerite Duras, was a French writer and film director.

Quotes

• It's afterwards you realize that the feeling of happiness you had with a man didn't necessarily prove that you loved him.
  • The Chimneys of India Song, from Practicalities (1987, trans. 1990).

• It was the men I deceived the most that I loved the most.
  • The Chimneys of India Song, from Practicalities (1987, trans. 1990).

• I see journalists as the manual workers, the laborers of the word. Journalism can only be literature when it is passionate.
  • Walesa's Wife, from Practicalities (1987, trans. 1990).

• Ce qui remplit le temps c'est vraiment de le perdre.
  • The best way to fill time is to waste it.
  • Wasting Time, from Practicalities (1987, trans. 1990).

• 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.
  • Tourists in Paris, from Outside: Selected Writings (1984).

• Alcohol doesn’t console, it doesn’t fill up anyone’s psychological gaps, all it replaces is the lack of God. It doesn’t comfort man. On the contrary, it encourages him in his folly, it transports him to the supreme regions where he is master of his own destiny.
  • Alcohol, from Practicalities (1987, trans. 1990).

• Acting doesn't bring anything to a text. On the contrary, it detracts from it.
  • International Herald Tribune (28 March 1990).

External links