35 Quotes by Floyd Skloot

Acceptance is a deceptive word. It suggests compliance, a consenting to my condition and to who I have become. This form of acceptance is often seen as weakness, submission. We say I accept my punishment. Or I accept your decision. But such assent, while passive in essence, does provide the stable, rocklike foundation for coping with a condition that will not go away. It is a powerful passivity, the Zen of Illness, that allows for endurance.

When memories fade, can one ever really return home?

Dementia is, after all, a symptom of organic brain damage. It is a condition, a disorder of the central nervous system, brought about in my case by a viral assault on brain tissue. When the assault wiped out certain intellectual processes, it also affected emotional processes.

At 93, so deep in dementia that she didn't remember any details of her life, my mother somehow still knew songs.

Flannery O'Connor's brief life and slim output were nonetheless marked by piercing powers of observation.

I used to be able to think. My brain's circuits were all connected, and I had spark, a quickness of mind that let me function well in the world.

In the spring of 1993, I married Beverly and moved to the woods. This is something I could never have imagined myself doing.

Irish novelist John Banville has a creepy, introverted imagination.

Most people imagine music playing in their heads, but some hallucinate music; some cannot sleep because of the soundtrack in their mind.