Remembering

"They straightened out the Mississippi River in places, to make room for houses and liveable acreage. Occasionally the river floods these places...but in fact it is not flooding; it is remembering.
...All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. Writers are like that: remembering where we were, what valley we ran through, what the banks were like, the light that was there, and the route back to our original place."

--Toni Morrison