Quotes About Memory

After we're done, I want you to forget the whole thing … that we ever even met." "That's all right by me. Anyway, it doesn't look like something I'll want to remember.

Sometimes, roughly once a year, Akane's mother would appear to her like this as a hallucination that only she could see. But what felt even stranger was that her mother—who had died young—appeared to have aged appropriately in her illusory form.

If she were still alive, she would be forty-five this year.

In her elementary school days, she'd experienced something so terrifying that it was too much to remember.

I guess you're right. I can look at photo albums and get a reasonable idea of what I was like when I was three years old, or when I was a newborn.

Mi viene in mente che non riesco a ricordare nessun preciso particolare del Suo viso. Vedo ancora soltanto come Lei si allontanò poi tra i tavolini del caffè, la Sua figura, il Suo abito.

Sometimes at night I think that my husband is with me again, coming gently through the mists, and we are tranquil together. Then the morning comes, the wavering grey turns to gold, there is stirring within me as the sleepers awake, and he softly departs.

Gall 3rst had this idea as a young boy when he noticed that those of his classmates who excelled at memorizing school assignments had prominent eyes.

Sì, pensavo io, la sua vita è di quelle che bisogna vivere due volte prima di poter dire che è stata veramente vissuta. Si può ripetere da capo un'arietta, ma non una composizione intera, una sinfonia e neanche una tragedia in cinque atti. Se la si ripete, vuol dire che non è andata come doveva.

I am telling you that the child will not out live the buildings. Do you understand that wheras women may touch the immortal by giving birth, men--great men-- must build monuments and seek fame?

Dementia was an unforgiving illness, one that stole hope and crumbled pride.

Every day stole away more of her presence, leaving in its place faint wisps of memories devoid of color, scent, and sound.

When it's a memory, you already know the outcome, so we believe it was an easier time.

When it's a memory, you already know the outcome, so we believe it was an easier time. Looking forward is much more uncertain, and so feels more complicated. But I don't think it is. Not really.

Right now, Mama G's memory is like the ocean. It comes and goes, high tide and low tide. But each time, the beach erodes a little bit more.

It's odd—when you look back, things seem simpler, but they weren't." "Really?" "When it's a memory, you already know the outcome, so we believe it was an easier time. Looking forward is much more uncertain, and so feels more complicated. But I don't think it is. Not really.

When it's a memory, you already know the outcome, so we believe it was an easier time. Looking forward is much more uncertain, and so feels more complicated. But I don't think it is. Not really.

It's best to let the dead rest

An oft-told story is like a photograph in a family album; eventually, it replaces the moment it was meant to capture.

There are moments when history and memory seem like a mist, as if what really happened matters less than what should have happened.

the happening and the telling are very different things. This doesn't mean that the story isn't true, only that I honestly don't know anymore if I really remember it or only remember how to tell it.

They never reminisced about the time they had to drive halfway back to Indianapolis because I'd left Dexter Poindexter, my terry-cloth penguin (threadbare, ravaged by love—as who amongst us is not)

This is a good reminder that no one in the world is a reliable source for their own story.

There are moments when history and memory seem like a mist, as if what really happened matters less than what should have happened. The mist lifts and suddenly there we are, my good parents and their good children, their grateful children who phone for no reason but to talk, say their good-nights with a kiss, and look forward to home on the holidays. I see how, in a family like mine, love doesn't have to be earned and it can't be lost.