“When it comes to Clare, sometimes, the past isn't past. The past can get as present as any present ever was, so near that I feel its breath.”

“It isn't what you did in the past that will affect the present. It's what you do in the present that will redeem the past and thereby change the future.”

“Sometimes, I feel the past and the future pressing so hard on either side that there's no room for the present at all.”

“How can the past and future be, when the past no longer is, and the future is not yet? As for the present, if it were always present and never moved on to become the past, it would not be time, but eternity.”

“Best not to mix the past with the present. The present paints the past with gold. The past paints the present with lead.”

“There have been times, lately, when I dearly wished that I could change the past. Well, I can’t, but I can change the present, so that when it becomes the past it will turn out to be a past worth having.”