Quote

A lot of people can't remember things because they weren't actually there to begin with - they don't take it all in.

Human memory is short and terribly fickle.

We are a people who do not want to keep much of the past in our heads. It is considered unhealthy in America to remember mistakes, neurotic to think about them, psychotic to dwell on them.

There's a preoccupation with memory and the operation of memory and a rather rapacious interest in history.

Recalling a memory is not like playing a tape recorder. It's a creative process.

Perhaps it is because I'm a writer trained in history that I've always assumed I would make mistakes in my drafts. Historians know how faulty human memory can be.

Memory is a fiction we tell ourselves: just a piece of the truth.

I have a very, very good memory, and I always remember the people who have done right by me and the people who have done wrong by me.