“That's what memory is like: layers, one overlapping another, and compacting down the way old leaves slowly crumble and turn to a rich peaty soil, nourishing the new things that will grow. It's why it's important, remembering things. It's why it matters, when the memories aren't there, and no one fills in the gaps for you.”

“...it's not just learning that's important. It's learning what to do with what you learn and learning why you learn things that matters.”

“Your youth is the most important thing you will ever have. It's when you will connect to music like a primal urge, and the memories attached to the songs will never leave you. Please hold on to everything. Keep every note, mix tape, concert ticket stub, and memory you have of music from your youth. It'll be the one thing that might keep you young, even if you aren't anymore.”

“I believe that there are no memories that are okay to forget.Every man's memory is his private literature.Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a while, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the sameMemory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand.”

“Flesh does strange things to memory. Pain and joy both alter it. When you are happy, you remember things one way. When you are sad, you remember them another. And sometimes the flesh does not admit that memory is real at all or plucks false memories out of thin air.”

“But you play that passage like it's the -memory- of love. You're so young, yet you know desertion, abandonment. That's why you play that third movement the way you do. Most cellists, they play it with joy. But for you, it's not about joy, it's about the memory of a joyful time that's gone for ever.”