“I used to be able to summon up scenes at will, but now aging memory is so busy weeding its own garden that, promiscuously, it pulls up roses as well as crabgrass.”

—  Gore Vidal

Source: 1990s, Palimpsest : A Memoir (1995), Ch. 12: The Guest of the Blue Nuns, p. 162

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I used to be able to summon up scenes at will, but now aging memory is so busy weeding its own garden that, promiscuous…" by Gore Vidal?
Gore Vidal photo
Gore Vidal163
American writer 1925–2012

Related quotes

“It's disturbing how fast weeds take root in my garden of worthiness.
They're so hard to pull.
And grow back so easily.”

Wendelin Van Draanen (1965) American writer

Source: The Running Dream

David Allen photo

“Are you overwhelmed pulling weeds, when you really just need to replant the garden?”

David Allen (1945) American productivity consultant and author

16 February 2012 https://twitter.com/gtdguy/status/170372170025934848 <br class="br"> Official Twitter profile (@gtdguy) https://twitter.com/gtdguy

Thomas Fuller photo

“No garden is without its weeds.”

Thomas Fuller (1608–1661) English churchman and historian

Adam Mickiewicz photo

“In spring's own country, where the gardens blow,
You faded, tender rose! For hours now past,
Like butterflies departing, on you're cast
The worms of memories to work you woe.”

Adam Mickiewicz (1798–1855) Polish national poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator, professor of Slavic literature, and polit…

&quot;The Grave of the Countess Potocki&quot; http://daisy.htmlplanet.com/amick.htm <br class="br">Crimean Sonnets

“The master of the garden is the one who waters it, trims the branches, plants the seeds, and pulls the weeds. If you merely stroll through the garden, you are but an acolyte.”

Vera Nazarian (1966) American writer

Source: The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

Zadie Smith photo

“They had nothing to say to each other. A five-year age gap between siblings is like a garden that needs constant attention. Even three months apart allows the weeds to grow up between you.”

Zadie Smith On Beauty

Source: On Beauty

“The human heart is a garden, wherein grow weeds of memory and blooms of hope, and the snow falls at last and covers all.”

Frank Crane (1861–1928) American Presbyterian minister

Four Minute Essays Vol. 5 (1919), The Human Heart

Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy photo

“God gave His children memory
That in life's garden there might be
June roses in December.”

Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy (1883–1929) British saint

Source: from Roses in December, in Songs of Faith and Doubt (1922) https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/roses-december

Joanna Newsom photo

“And all that we built, and all that we breathed
And all that we spilled or pulled up like weeds
Is piled up in back and it burns irrevocably
And we spoke up in turns 'til the silence crept over me.”

Joanna Newsom (1982) American musician

The Milk-Eyed Mender (2004)

“In time of crisis, we summon up our strength.
Then, if we are lucky, we are able to call every resource, every forgotten image that can leap to our quickening, every memory that can make us know our power. And this luck is more than it seems to be: it depends on the long preparation of the self to be used.”

Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980) poet and political activist

Introduction
The Life of Poetry (1949)
Context: In time of crisis, we summon up our strength.
Then, if we are lucky, we are able to call every resource, every forgotten image that can leap to our quickening, every memory that can make us know our power. And this luck is more than it seems to be: it depends on the long preparation of the self to be used.
In time of the crises of the spirit, we are aware of all our need, our need for each other and our need for our selves. We call up, with all the strength of summoning we have, our fullness.

Related topics