Recollection is not something that I can summon up, it simply comes and I am the servant of it.
Interpretation
Memories cannot be forced; they emerge naturally, and we must accept and serve them.
This quote by Edna O'Brien reflects the idea that memories and recollections are not under our direct control. They arise spontaneously and shape our experiences, suggesting that we play a passive role in recalling our past and must acknowledge the power of these memories in influencing our present and future.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about how memories shape our identity.
Love . . . is like nature, but in reverse; first it fruits, then it flowers, then it seems to wither, then it goes deep, deep down into its burrow, where no one sees it, where it is lost from sight, and ultimately people die with that secret buried inside their souls.
That is the mystery about writing: it comes out of afflictions, out of the gouged times, when the heart is cut open.
Cities, in many ways, are the best repositories for a love affair. You are in a forest or a cornfield, you are walking by the seashore, footprint after footprint of trodden sand, and somehow the kiss or the spoken covenant gets lost in the vastness and indifference of nature. In a city there are places to remind us of what has been.
Darkness is drawn to light, but light does not know it; light must absorb the darkness and therefore meet its own extinguishment.
Oh, love, what an unreasoning creature it grew to be.
It was the first time that I came face to face with madness and feared it and was fascinated by it.
It has always seemed to me extreme presumptuousness on the part of those who want to make human ability the measure of what nature can and knows how to do, since, when one comes down to it, there is not one effect in nature, no matter how small, that even the most speculative minds can fully understand.
Nothing weighs on us so heavily as a secret.
We must differentiate between guilt and duty. The soldier on the front, like the common man, who does his duty everywhere, should not be held responsible for the actions of a few who also called themselves Germans.
If everyone howled at every injustice, every act of barbarism, every act of unkindness, then we would be taking the first step towards a real humanity.
What is reprehensible is that while leading good lives themselves and abhorring those of wicked men, some, fearing to offend, shut their eyes to evil deeds instead of condemning them and pointing out their malice.
In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes; so with present time.
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