How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Dustfinger? What kind of a name was that? Meggie couldn't remember ever hearing it before, yet it sounded familiar, like a distant memory that wouldn't take shape properly. (1.25)
Maybe Meggie's memory of her early childhood isn't as blacked out as everyone assumes it is. Sure she doesn't remember her mom very well, and she doesn't remember the traumatic events that shaped her childhood when she was three, but some memories seem to be floating in her brain, waiting for her to trigger them.
Quote #2
The light from the hallway fell on her bed, mingling with the darkness of the night that seeped in through the window, and Meggie lay there waiting for the dark to disappear and take her fear of some evil menace away with it. Only later did she understand that evil had not appeared for the first time that night. It had just slunk back in again. (1.80)
Since Meggie doesn't remember the whole thing with her mom disappearing into Inkheart and characters coming out of it, she doesn't know at first that Dustfinger's appearance is not a totally new, random event. But later she realizes that it's part of a pattern that's been repeated in the past, and it's linked with very bad things to come.
Quote #3
"Sometimes it's a good thing we don't remember things half as well as books do. But for them we probably wouldn't know anything for very long. It would all be forgotten: the Trojan War, Columbus, Marco Polo, Shakespeare, all the amazing kings and gods of the past…" (5.8)
It's true, as Elinor points out, that books have long memories, much longer than people (because, when taken care of, books also live longer than people). And that can be both a good thing and a bad thing. Sometimes when something bad happens (like Meggie's mom disappearing, which Meggie hardly remembers) it can be good to have time erase it from your memory. But on the other hand, can you imagine what it'd be like to not have any of Shakespeare's plays?