Joyanne > Joyanne's Quotes

“He laughs. And in his laugh I hear bliss. I hear feet dancing, the rush of skirts twirling. The sound of children.
Is that the first sign of love?
You hear in the person you're destined to love the sound of those yet to be born.”
― Alyson Richman, The Lost Wife

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
― Leo Tolstoy , Anna Karenina

“I can't stand just sitting here not doing anything. You can't solve a problem by remote control.”
― Lisa Scottoline, Every Fifteen Minutes

“He said, “I think at various times in life we’re either more or less true to who we really are.”
― Rebecca Kauffman, The Gunners

“What’s the alternative to living with something that hurts?” Alice said. “Jump off a bridge?” She hesitated. “I don’t mean that as a joke. How does anybody live with anything? You just . . . march on, I guess, even when your heart’s not in it.”
― Rebecca Kauffman, The Gunners

“There was always that other feeling, crouched and waiting nearby in the shadows, even at a moment like this, even when he was on the brink of the most beautiful thing he would ever see in his life. It was the low tide. The sacred, empty void after the birds had taken flight. The tangled thing that tugged on Mikey, kept him sewn up inside himself, made happiness hard. Mikey didn’t yet have words for this feeling, but already at this young age, he understood that it would never leave him entirely—nature had put it in his heart, and there it would always remain, even when he thought he was in the clear, even when he thought he had left it behind.”
― Rebecca Kauffman, The Gunners

“This holler feels like home, and this house feels like family. There are women’s stories here, stories of resilience, love, and strength. This community knows them well, but their echo hasn’t reached far enough into the outside world. Instead, these tales have ricocheted within the mountains, growing more faint with time. I want to tell these stories because they matter, because I’m afraid that they will be forgotten, because they have the power to make this community visible. As I stop my vehicle and walk toward the house, the memories wash over me like the sunlight on the mountain hills.”
― Cassie Chambers, Hill Women: Finding Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian Mountains

“Experts on education say that exposing low-income children to higher-income environments is one of the most effective tools for motivating them to strive to do well in school.”
― Cassie Chambers, Hill Women: Finding Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian Mountains

“For a while, in that room, my past and present were together and getting along just fine.”
― Cassie Chambers, Hill Women: Finding Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian Mountains

“I had the fire and the strength of the mountains in my bones.”
― Cassie Chambers, Hill Women: Finding Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian Mountains

“But outsiders who rush into the hills don’t always take the time to see that mountain people are a creative, resourceful lot. They don’t understand that Appalachians can be—should be—partners in the effort to make their lives better. They don’t grasp that, if given the right resources and opportunities, these communities are capable of saving themselves. If there’s one thing that women in these hills know how to do, it’s get things done.”
― Cassie Chambers, Hill Women: Finding Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian Mountains

“Because proximity breeds empathy. And with empathy, humanity has a fighting chance.”
― Tyler Merritt, I Take My Coffee Black: Reflections on Tupac, Musical Theater, Faith, and Being Black in America

“Before we go any further, can we all just admit that junior high sucks eggs? I have never met a person who said, “Man. Seventh grade was the best.” And if I did, I would not want them in my life. Like a person who wears Crocs on purpose, or prefers Pepsi over Coke, I don’t need that kind of delusional idiocy in my life.”
― Tyler Merritt, I Take My Coffee Black: Reflections on Tupac, Musical Theater, Faith, and Being Black in America

“Shame is really easily understood as the fear of disconnection: Is there something about me that, if other people know it or see it, that I won’t be worthy of connection?”2”
― Tyler Merritt, I Take My Coffee Black: Reflections on Tupac, Musical Theater, Faith, and Being Black in America

“Proximity (which breeds empathy) + Honesty (vulnerable dialogue) + Value (seeing each other as having inherent worth) + A Common Goal (seeing that we’re all in this”
― Tyler Merritt, I Take My Coffee Black: Reflections on Tupac, Musical Theater, Faith, and Being Black in America