I see journalists as the manual workers, the laborers of the word. Journalism can only be literature when it is passionate.
Interpretation
This quote compares journalists to laborers, emphasizing the effort they put into their work and the passionate nature of true journalism.
In this quote, Marguerite Duras likens journalists to manual laborers, highlighting the physical and intellectual effort involved in journalism. She suggests that journalism transcends mere reporting and becomes a form of literature only when it is infused with passion, indicating that the heart and soul of journalists contribute significantly to the quality and impact of their writing.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of the press, this quote can be used to illustrate the dedication required for accurate journalism.
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.
What she said was always strange. It had happened long ago. It seemed insignificant. And yet it was something you remembered forever. The words as well as the story. The voice as much as the words.
I'm still there, watching those possessed children, as far away from the mystery now as I was then. I've never written, though I thought I wrote, never loved, though I thought I loved, never done anything but wait outside the closed door.
Perhaps someone will have seen mine, the one Iβm waiting for, just as I saw him, in a ditch when his hands were making their last appeal and his eyes no longer could see. Someone who will never know what that man was to me; someone whose name Iβll never know.
Stormy skies, says Ernesto. He grieved for them. Summer rain. Childhood.
A prolonged silence ensues. The reason for the silence is our growing interest one for the other. No one is aware of it, no one yet; no one? am I quite sure?
Extemporaneous speaking should be practised and cultivated. It is the lawyer's avenue to the public.
Children need models rather than critics.
They're all so highly educated, you know. Education is a great shield against experience. It offers so much, ready-made and all from the best shops, that there's a temptation to miss your own life in pursuing the lives of your betters. It makes you wise in some ways, but it can make you a blindfolded fool in others.
We should read to give our souls a chance to luxuriate.
Clutter is the disease of American writing.
World's children cannot wait any longer. While international community debates and issues recommendations, statements and fine speeches, world's children - marginalised, socially excluded, poor and vulnerable - continue to suffer.
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