Artist Quote by Robert Hass
““But usually not. Usually she thinks of the path to his house, whether deer had eaten the tops of the fiddleheads, why they don't eat the peppermint saprophytes sprouting along the creek; or she visualizes the approach to the cabin, its large windows, the fuchsias in front of it where Anna's hummingbirds always hover with dirty green plumage and jeweled throats. Sometimes she thinks about her dream, the one in which her mother wakes up with no hands. The cabin smells of oil paint, but also of pine. The painter's touch is sexual and not sexual, as she herself is…When the memory of that time came to her, it was touched by strangeness because it formed no pattern with the other events in her life. It lay in her memory like one piece of broken tile, salmon-coloured or the deep green of wet leaves, beautiful in itself but unusable in the design she was making””
About This Quote
Source Poem: “The Memory of the Tile” (excerpt) by Robert Hass, 1994
The narrator’s mind fragments into vivid, unrelated images, reflecting how memory can be beautiful yet unusable in coherent narratives.
In simple terms: Memories are vivid, disconnected, and sometimes don’t fit into a larger story.
Key Takeaway
Accept fragmented recollections.
Themes
memory
creativity
fragmentation
Mood
nostalgic
contemplative
Type
poetic
introspective
When to use this quote
- writing workshops
- therapy
- artistic inspiration
- storytelling
Key Concepts
psychology
literature
neuroscience
Questions to Reflect On
- How do you integrate disparate memories into personal meaning?
- Can fragmented memories inspire creativity?
A Different Perspective
Fragmented memories may hinder coherent self‑understanding.
