We only store in memory images of value. To write about one's life is to live it twice, and the second time is both spiritual and historical.

Looking repeatedly into the past, you do not necessarily become fascinated with your own life, but rather with the phenomenon of memory.

Memory is, first, a captivating mystery.

The world is full of mystery but it must not be choked with secrets: we must talk to one another.

The golden light of metaphor, which is the intelligence of poetry, was implicit in alchemical study. To change, magically, one substance into another, more valuable one is the ancient function of metaphor, as it was of alchemy.

Silence, that inspired dealer, takes the day's deck, the life, all in a crazy heap, lays it out, and plays its flawless hand of solitaire, every card in place. Scoops them up, and does it all over again.

I come from people who have always been polite enough to feel that nothing has ever happened to them.