We are all patchworks of our ancestors.

To write a life is to assemble a mosaic where some pieces are inevitably missing.

The whole of life is just like watching a film. Only it's as though you always get in ten minutes after the big picture has started, and no-one will tell you the plot, so you have to work it out all yourself from the clues.

"Every story is a puzzle, and the writer's job is to put the pieces together in a way that reveals a deeper truth."

"We are all patchwork, and so shapeless and diverse in composition that each bit, each moment, plays its own game."

We are all patchwork, and so shapeless and diverse in composition that each bit, each moment, plays its own game.

The past is a puzzle, and we are all trying to piece it together.

People are curious. A few people are. They will be driven to find things out, even trivial things. They will put things together, knowing all along that they may be mistaken.

"It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart."

"We are all patchworks of our experiences, memories, and the stories we tell ourselves."

"We are all detectives in our own lives, trying to piece together the fragments of our past to understand who we are."

People are curious. A few people are. They will be driven to find things out, even trivial things. They will put things together, knowing all along that they may be mistaken. You see them going around with notebooks, scraping the dirt off gravestones, reading microfilm, just in the hope of seeing this trickle in time, making a connection, rescuing one thing from the rubbish.

We are all patchwork, and so shapeless and diverse in composition that each bit, each moment, plays its own game.

We are all patchwork, and so shapeless and diverse in composition that each bit, each moment, plays its own game.

We are all patchworks of our experiences, memories, and the stories we tell ourselves.

"We are all detectives of our own lives, piecing together clues from the past."