I fear / the place I have / in the memory of others. / They remind me of things / I myself have forgot. Tove Ditlevsen More Quotes by Tove Ditlevsen More Quotes From Tove Ditlevsen Memory, that library of the soul from which I will draw knowledge and experience for the rest of my life. Tove Ditlevsen library soul memories Down in the bottom of my childhood my father stands laughing. Tove Ditlevsen childhood laughing father my childhood grew thin and flat, paperlike. It was tired and threadbare, and in low moments it didn't look like it would last until I was grown up. Tove Ditlevsen childhood tired looks [On her mother:] My relationship with her is close, painful, and skaky, and I always have to keep searching for a sign of love. Everything I do, I do to please her, to make her smile, to ward off her fury. This work is extremely exhausting. Tove Ditlevsen make-her-smile painful mother Childhood is long and narrow like a coffin, and you can't get out of it on your own. Tove Ditlevsen coffins childhood long my poems covered the bare places in my childhood like the fine, new skin under a scab that hasn't yet fallen off completely. Tove Ditlevsen childhood skins poetry