“[They] talked mostly of their memories, for the past was all they had - the present being such a changable, odd thing, and the future too far away.”

“Children are often envied for their supposed imaginations, but the truth is that adults imagine things far more than children do. Most adults wander the world deliberately blind, living only inside their heads, in their fantasies, in their memories and worries, oblivious to the present, only aware of the past or future.”

“It is difficult to live in the present, ridiculous to live in the future, and impossible to live in the past. Nothing is as far away as one minute ago.”

“Only by being present can you be happy. Too much attention to the past and the future takes the now away. And once it's gone, you never get it back.”

“The pure present is an ungraspable advance of the past devouring the future. In truth, all sensation is already memory.”

“In the West we cling to the past like limpets. In Haiti the present is the axis of all life. As in Africa, past and future are but distant measures of the present, and memories are as meaningless as promises.”