Duras portrays love as a transformative and irreversible experience. Once embarked upon, it changes you so profoundly that you can never go back to who you were before, highlighting its powerful, sometimes destructive, impact on identity and life.
Quote by Marguerite Duras: “Love is like a long journey. You leave and you don't return.”
Love is like a long journey. You leave and you don't return.
Insight
Historical Context
This quote is from The Lover (1984), her most famous novel, a semi-autobiographical account of an illicit affair in colonial Indochina. It explored themes of forbidden love, desire, and memory, and their lasting consequences.
About the Author
French novelist and filmmaker born in French Indochina (now Vietnam), best known for the autobiographical novel The Lover (1984), which won the Prix Goncourt. Her experimental prose and film work explored memory, desire, and the limits of language, and she was a central figure in the French New Novel movement.
View all quotes by Marguerite Duras