Maureen Duffy

“Arriving at each new city, the traveler finds again a past of his that he did not know he had: the foreignness of what you no longer are or no longer possess lies in wait for you in foreign, unpossessed places.”
― Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

“Your memory is a monster; you forget—it doesn't. It simply files things away. It keeps things for you, or hides things from you—and summons them to your recall with will of its own. You think you have a memory; but it has you!”
― John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany

“Then
Scale by scale,
We strip off
The delicacy
And eat
The peaceful mush
Of its green heart.”
― Pablo Neruda, Odes to Common Things

“She behaves as if she was beautiful. Most American women do. It is the secret of their charm.”
― Oscar Wilde