Writers Are Forever Remembering

They straightened out the Mississippi River in places, to make room for houses and livable 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