The Forgetting Time Quotes
"The humidity was intense, but the warm embrace of the sea made up for it, like a consolation prize for the loveless."
"Since her mother had died, she hadn’t had the heart to go on dates the two of them couldn’t analyze afterward, moment by moment, over the phone."
"Her mom, though, had always been there, her love as basic and necessary as gravity, until one day she wasn’t."
"The year for what? she’d always wanted to ask."
"Men had always come and gone in her life; she’d felt them slipping away months before they actually did."
"And wasn’t this what she’d been after—this lightness that came galloping through, grabbing you by the waist and hauling you along with it?"
"But was she? She looked at him and saw it all instantaneously: the interest in his eyes, the smooth, easy way he moved his left hand slightly behind the roti basket, temporarily obscuring the finger with the wedding ring."
"She felt something between her shoulders loosening, a muscle she’d mistaken for bone, and a lightness came over her."
"She supposed there must be another way to experience that breathless rush of being alive—something inward, perhaps?—but she didn’t know what it was or how to get there on her own."
"But I’m not finished." These were the words that popped unbidden out of Jerome Anderson’s mouth when the neurologist told him his life was functionally over."
"Never expect. It had been the lesson of his life."
"He was not getting younger and had always worked long hours."
"She was aware of herself as if from a distance, standing over this shivering boy under the eerie light of the fake stars."
"The sacrifices of the single mom had been her mother’s refrain throughout her childhood."
"I guess I should get going." Her words sounded reluctant even to her own ears."
""He’s too young, as I said, for a proper diagnosis. But we have to consider it. We can’t rule it out." His eyes watched her steadily beneath the heavy lids. "We’ll know more with time.""
"Perhaps he wasn’t even a businessman. He’d made it up—but why? She’d thought it had been to impress her, but now she wondered: had he been in the throes of a full-blown psychosis?"
"Medication? She lifted her head. "But he’s only four!"
"I miss her so much." He was crying in earnest now, great wheezing sobs that seemed to emerge from his chest fully formed, like tufts of black smoke.
"Help. She was sure she was not the first, nor the last, person to Google that."
"You tried so hard to give your kid food that was healthy... And then you gave him this?"
"‘I want to go home.’ ‘You are home, sweetie.’ ‘When is my other mother coming?’"
"Dr. Jerome Anderson, who for many decades has been studying young children who seem to recall details from previous lives…"
"Let the next generation of scientific seekers find his work and make of it what they will."
"He had what he needed now. Ashview, Tommy, Charlie. A lizard, a baseball team. He’d put together bigger puzzles from less."
"Connection spawned connection in his mind, branching outward like glass shattering."
"It was clear to him that genetics and environmental factors did not explain everything."
"Why should this happen to this child, in this way?"
"True, he couldn’t look at his son, but it was because he loved him and was so powerless to help him."
"Not just nature or nurture, but something else that could cause personality quirks, phobias."
"Why some babies were born calm and others inconsolable."
"Why some children had innate attractions and abilities."
"Why others felt they should have been a member of the opposite sex."
"Sheila had accused him of an inability to love Owen during his brief, tortured life, because he could not bring himself to hold and stroke the baby as she did."
"He had walked right out of the NICU and down the hallway into the maternity ward, to the window behind which the other babies slept and fussed, their bodies brightly pink with health."
"Could it really be simple bad luck, an unfortunate turn of chromosomal roulette?"
"Why was this child born this way, when there were no genetic indicators, no environmental factors at all?"
"For no clear reason, one baby comes out the way Owen had, and others come out perfectly."
"Could be any boy, really. His skin was a light brown. He was African American. She didn’t know why this should be surprising to her."
"Detective James Ludden, who had been leading the search effort, stated that 'as far as I’m concerned, this case isn’t over until we find the boy, one way or another.'"
"Charlie misses his big brother," his parents, Denise and Henry Crawford, said in a statement. "We miss our beloved boy."
"Janie believed in consistency. It was something she took pride in."
"After that, her mother had gone back to work as a nurse and they got into a regular rhythm."
"Everything is a projection of mind," had three stars next to it.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio."
"You’re too serious for the beach," she was saying. She was laughing at him.
"He felt like Tantalus, parched and hungry, striving fruitlessly for the cool water and the grapes that were always just out of reach."
"It’s not unheard of for people to reincarnate into a different race or culture."
"Put all the green ones on top and see what happens."
"Tommy was alive on this earth and no one could tell her otherwise."
"And he was sitting in the office of Principal Ranzetta herself right now and she’d have nary a clue."
"It was as if her conscious mind was still back in the parking lot of the Stop & Shop and she was letting this other part of herself take over again."
"Are you lost? You want to come inside and call your mom or something?"
"And the Israelites were weary from their journey, their hope waning in the desert."
"Everything that could go wrong had gone wrong. And he, watching the hysteria unfold, more helpless than any of them."
"He tore through the woods, his gait unsteady, feet slipping wildly on the pine needles but propelling him forward, onward, as if he could outrun June 14 once and for all when he knew he would never get away."
"We just have to do the best we can with what we have. We're in this life now. Together."
"You rely on your intellect and your... feelings. Your feelings are good."
"You're here, and Noah's in my living room, waiting for you. Isn't that enough?"
"But we can't forget about now, Noah. The moment we're in. The life we're in. That's more important."
"Why did Tommy decide to come back in the States, do you think?"
"We can try, but we can't forget about now. The moment we're in. The life we're in. That's more important. We can't forget that."