“Let me clarify something for you, Damon. There is the simplepresent tense, which is used to describe things that take place in thepresent, simple past tense that describes things that occurred in thepast. And then there is the tense that is used to describe the chancessomething has to happening. You should know about it, you justused it. It is called the simply impossible tense.”

“Nothing could go wrong because nothing had...I meant "nothing would." No - Then I quit trying to phrase it, realizing that if time travel ever became widespread, English grammar was going to have to add a whole new set of tenses to describe reflexive situations - conjugations that would make the French literary tenses and the Latin historical tenses look simple.”

“...I begin with songs. They provide a sort of skeleton grammar for me to flesh out. Songs of longing for future tense, songs of regret for past tense, and songs of love for present tense.”

“You said you loved me, is that now in the past tense?" "No, it's not." "Good.”

“There is no point in using the word 'impossible' to describe something that has clearly happened.”

“There is no past or future. Using tenses to divide time is like making chalk marks on water.”