Could someone help me interpret this quote?

Question

I am writing an essay about wasting time being a good thing. The quote I want to use is "the best way to fill time is to waste it" by Marguerite Duras. Does this sound like an appropriate quote? What do you think it means?

Thanks to anyone who contributes :)

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

I like the quote you chose because I am a nurse/single mother who understands the rush rush rush of daily life.
People should just take time to waste time when at all possible.
Here is a website and some more quotes that basically say the same thing you are saying with this quote.

http://brightquotes.com/tim_fr.html


There is never enough time to do all the nothing you want.
- Bill Watterson

Procrastination is like a credit card; it's a lot of fun until you get the bill.
- Christopher Parker

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
- Douglas Adams

THE VALUE OF TIME
>To realize the value of one year:
- Ask a student who has failed a final exam.
To realize the value of one month:
- Ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.
To realize the value of one week:
- Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper
To realize the value of one hour:
- Ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realize the value of one minute:
- Ask a person who has missed the train, bus or plane.
To realize the value of one second:
- Ask a person who has survived an accident.
To realize the value of one millisecond:
- Ask the person who has won a silver medal in the Olympics.


Time waits for no one and we are all given the same amount. Spend it with those you care for in a setting you love. Treasure every moment.

Answer 2

I think it is a good quote because I think wasting time is like having fun (not that its a bad thing). I think it means that if you have fun or if you're doing something and time flies is wasting time, but yet its the best way to fill the time.


*Good luck with the essay*

Answer 3

"Time is never wasted, when you're wasted all the time." :D

Answer 4

If you've read the whole essay, what she's saying is pretty complicated.

First, though, when she speaks of wasting time, she's talking very specifically about hanging around, waiting for something to happen. She's not talking about goofing off and having fun. She illustrates by referencing, "...all the young people hanging around outside churches and public places..."

So the quote is only appropriate if that's the sense you have of wasting time.

And to her it's a little frightening, but it's *less* frightening than people shugging off to work as drones lost in the masses, "just so as to stay alive."

If you haven't read it, read the whole essay, and some others by her. She can be difficult to get a handle on, because her writing is very accessible (in translation) but her ideas are complicated tangles of emotion, ideology, philosophy, politics, everyday life, and more.

Source(s):

"Wasting Time" in *Pracitcalities* by Marguerite Duras