Alber Elbaz Quotes

It was very pleasant to savor its aroma, for smells have the power to evoke the past, bringing back sounds and even other smells that have no match in the present. -Tita

There's all kinds of those moments in your life where either through a weird set of circumstances, or a song you hear, or a smell you smell, or one person says something totally out of the context without the meaning that you assigned to it, but you snap back to the way you were when you were 14 or 15. We all deal with that.

Hit a tripwire of smell and memories explode all at once. A complex vision leaps out of the undergrowth.

Smell can conjure up memories for me stronger than any other sense. Especially childhood memories. Perhaps because you were that much shorter and therefore closer to the ground and its smells.

When people say that German or any other language is romantic... all they really mean is that they've enjoyed a past in the language

Why do some memories live only on your tongue or in your nose? Why do others always stay in your heart?

We can't change the past, so we change how people are thinking, feeling and behaving today.

Being in love, she concluded, is simply a presentation of our pasts to another individual, mostly packages so unwieldy that we can no longer manage the loosened strings alone.

She got under the covers and put her arms around the bag. She could smell Tibby. It used to be she couldn't smell Tibby's smell in the way you couldn't smell your own; it was too familiar. But tonight she could. This was some living part of Tibby still here and she held on to it. There was more of Tibby with her here and now than in what she had seen in the cold basement room that day.

The past which is not recoverable in any other way is embedded, as if in amber, in the music, and people can regain a sense of identity.

Odors can be highly transitory, depending on the air currents. If this is happening in your house, ask if there are any possessions of that deceased loved one still around. If it happens elsewhere, consider just how many millions of people use the same perfume or smoke the same brand of cigar as someone you knew.

…she remembered watching a summer sunset from this very spot. Not so long ago; just a lifetime.

Too many people live too much in the past. The past must be a springboard, not a sofa.

are memories pictures or the secret doorway?

It is essential that we understand people for who they are as individuals and not the public perception of them or their family and past.

I don't think writers change the past any more than other people do, except in so far as we may mine our lives and change things for fictional use.

Strange, what brings these past things so vividly back to us, sometimes!

The fact that perfume is so close to emotion, that's why I really love it. It's such a good connection between people. When you fall in love with somebody, smell is very important. It could be your memory of the person - it's touching. And it's also playful, because sometimes you choose a different perfume every day depending on your mood. I like to help with that. I like to give a little joy to people.

We are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not.

She'd fallen into the best part of her past.

Interesting people always have a past.

The past is strapped to our backs. We do not have to see it; we can always feel it. People gather bundles of sticks to build bridges they never cross. People in distress will sometimes prefer a problem that is familiar to a solution that is not.

These days I live in three worlds: my dreams, and the experiences of my new life, which trigger memories from the past

Being more mature now, I've managed to make peace with my past, as it's making peace with me. Certainly there's a mutual gain for reflecting on both phases of my life, and although I consider the here and now perhaps to be more important, there are still many people who appreciate my past ephemeral stages and the lessons they represent.