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Mira Bartok Quotes

Some of my old memories feel trapped in amber in my brain, lucid and burning, while others are like the wing beat of a hummingbird, an intangible, ephemeral blur.

Some of my old memories feel trapped in amber in my brain, lucid and burning, while others are like the wing beat of a hummingbird, an intangible, ephemeral blur.

Mira Bartok
Memories, Wings, Brain
Mira Bartok (2011). “The Memory Palace”, p.29, Simon and Schuster

We humans are different - our brains are built not to fix memories in stone but rather to transform them, our recollections in their retelling.

Mira Bartok
Memories, Brain, Different
Mira Bartok (2011). “The Memory Palace: A Memoir”, p.29, Simon and Schuster

My dog, Ginger, is jumpy-like me-sensitive to sound and sudden movement. She wasn't that way at first, but not long after we got her, my grandfather told me to stand still outside and hold her leash tight. Then he shot a gun off by our feet, several times. "This is how girls learn to obey," he said, "how to be seen and not heard."

Mira Bartok
Girl, Dog, Bullying

We children of schizophrenics are the great secret keepers, the ones who don't want you to think that anything is wrong.

Mira Bartok
Children, Thinking, Secret
Mira Bartok (2011). “The Memory Palace”, p.5, Simon and Schuster

Children of the mentally ill learn early on how not to be a bother, especially if they grew up with neglect. As my sister insisted once, when she was in severe pain after injuring her ankle, 'This isn't me! This is not who I am!

Mira Bartok
Children, Pain, Who I Am
Mira Bartok (2011). “The Memory Palace: A Memoir”, p.266, Simon and Schuster

I felt held hostage by her illness and by the backward mental health system that once again was incapable of helping our family in crisis.

Mira Bartok
Helping, Mental Health, Illness
Mira Bartok (2011). “The Memory Palace”, p.148, Simon and Schuster

Eloquent and moving... an extraordinary testament to the enduring power of love - beyond faith and dogma. It reminds us of why we are here: to love and live fully, to be curious about all things, and to live a compassionate - and passionate - authentic life.

Mira Bartok
Moving, Passionate, Why We Are Here

Who am I, then, if my memory is impaired?

Mira Bartok
Memories, Ifs
Mira Bartok (2011). “The Memory Palace: A Memoir”, p.29, Simon and Schuster

Candid and searing, Deborah Jiang Stein’s memoir is a remarkable story about identity, lost and found, and about the author’s journey to reclaim—and celebrate—that most primal of relationships, the one between mother and child. I dare you to read this book without crying.

Mira Bartok
Mother, Children, Book

Cheryl Strayed reminds us, in her lyrical and courageous memoir Wild, of what it means to be fully alive, even in the face of catastrophe, physical and psychic hardship, and loss.

Mira Bartok
Mean, Loss, Psychics

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