A memoir provides a record not so much of the memoirist as of the memoirist's world.

I don't know when we'll see each other again or what the world will be like when we do. We may both have seen many horrible things. But I will think of you every time I need to be reminded that there is beauty and goodness in the world.

Can't you see? Every step I have taken, since I was that child on the bridge, has been to bring myself closer to you.

Finally the homeless eel marked its territory, I suppose, and the Doctor lay heavily upon me, moist with sweat.

Never give up; for even rivers someday wash dams away.

Now I know that our world is no more permanent than a wave rising on the ocean. Whatever our struggles and triumphs, however we may suffer them, all too soon they bleed into a wash, just like watery ink on paper.

We none of us find as much kindness in this world as we should.