Quote by Marguerite Duras: “One must continue. I can’t continue. I must continue.”

This quote captures the struggle between despair and determination. It reflects a deep human conflict: the feeling of being unable to go on, yet compelled by an inherent force or will to persist despite the difficulties. This highlights resilience.

This existential statement also appears in Duras's work, particularly The Ravishing of Lol Stein (1964). It encapsulates the resilience and torment of characters grappling with trauma and memory, a common thread in post-war literature.

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.