2,914 Quotes About Memory

Our dreamshave been assaultedby a memory that will notsleep

It's very important to write things down instantly, or you can lose the way you were thinking out a line. I have a rule that if I wake up at 3 in the morning and think of something, I write it down. I can't wait until morning -- it'll be gone."[Maria Shriver Interviews the Famously Private Poet Mary Oliver (O Magazine, March 2011)]

Our memory is a more perfect world than the universe: it gives back life to those who no longer exist.

Forbidden to remember, terrified to forget; it was a hard line to walk.

Memories, even your most precious ones, fade surprisingly quickly. But I don’t go along with that. The memories I value most, I don’t ever see them fading.

Dementia isn’t the only place that memories are found to be flawed—people find out they can’t rely on their memories every day. People blindsided in relationships. People who find out their truth is a lie. People pulled from trauma. People awakened, as in Anna and Eve. I wondered: If you can’t use memories to steer your life, what can you use? I didn’t know. It was why I had to write this book.

If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered.

Memory is more indelible than ink.

It is strange how we hold on to the pieces of the past while we wait for our futures.