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...as long as nothing happens between them, the memory is cursed with what hasn't happened.
Marguerite Duras
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Unfulfilled connections can haunt our memories and hearts.

This quote reflects the idea that the absence of real experiences or actions in a relationship can lead to regret and a sense of longing. Marguerite Duras suggests that when two people have potential yet remain at a distance, it creates a curse of memories filled with 'what ifs' rather than fulfilling moments.

Themes

MemoryRelationshipsLongingRegretExperience

In practice

Example use cases

During a discussion on unfulfilled relationships, this quote can serve as a poignant reminder of the emotional weights we carry.

More from Marguerite Duras

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.
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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.
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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.
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Perhaps someone will have seen mine, the one I’m 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 I’ll never know.
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Stormy skies, says Ernesto. He grieved for them. Summer rain. Childhood.
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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?
Marguerite DurasRead

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