Good Joy, Bad Joy Quotes

“Small things really can add up to a remarkable life.”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy

“The world moves faster than it used to, and I wonder how people have any time to admire the smaller joys of life.”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy

“What greater achievement is there than a friendship that’s lasted nearly a century”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy: A Novel

“Parenting isn't about creating someone in your own image; it's about giving them the clay to shape themselves as they see fit, and celebrating whatever form they end up taking.”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy

“We just have to do our best so we can sit back at the end of our Iife and say, “We tried our hardest, learned from our mistakes, and loved as hard as we could.”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy

“Patience is a magical salve. You just have to let people do things in their own time. But so often we’re in a hurry, or we push, which makes people stubborn—and they do the opposite of what we want. I constantly wonder about the beautiful things that might have happened in the world if we’d all been a bit more patient.”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy: A Novel

“Did you know, Joy, that giraffes communicate by humming to one another? I never stopped humming to you, even if you couldn’t be there to hear it. And that’s when I learned what it truly felt like to have your heart broken.”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy: A Novel

“Everyone blooms in their own time”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy: A Novel

“What other things have I missed out on because I was so determined to keep up appearances”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy: A Novel

“What a sad existence that must be—so focused on the next thing you’re doing, the next place you’re going, that you forget to appreciate the very moment you’re in.”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy

“Hettie sneaks farther out of her bag to rest her little chin on my arm, her brown eyes now shining up at me. How do dogs know exactly when to do that right when you’re at your lowest? They really are magical beings.”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy: A Novel

“As the tittering of birds grows louder, I roll out of bed, open the curtains, and revel in the sunshine, summoning deep gratitude for the fact that I am here another day. Not many of us get to live this long, so I try to squeeze everything out of every extra moment I’m given—it would be disrespectful if I didn’t, now wouldn’t it? In honor of those who can’t, I make sure to savor the small pleasures of being alive, capturing them like a sensory photograph to tuck away in my memory for safekeeping.”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy: A Novel

“All this time I’ve been blaming society for making me invisible”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy: A Novel

“Parenting isn’t about creating someone in your own image; it’s about giving them the clay to shape themselves as they see fit”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy: A Novel

“There isn’t a precise moment when it happens. It’s a gradual fading away, like a bright painting in a sunny living room that becomes more muted over time. There are hints when invisibility descends, of course. On the bus, when, instead of meeting your eye, people seem to look through you. On the sidewalk, when they bustle past you, not stopping to apologize when they bump you firmly enough to test your balance. At the doctor’s office, when they talk at you, rather than to you, dismissing your concerns and questions. Eventually, you come to a disheartening realization. In society’s eyes you are superfluous and no longer have value to add. Because you are an elderly woman.”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy

“You know, I've always felt our friendship has been lopsided in a way, I say. I'm so predictable and boring compared to you. What do you even get out of spending time with me? You must know so many more worldly and interesting people. Hazel lifts her head to look me in the eye. A kite with a string that's not attached to anything might fly freely for a while, but it'll eventually get tangled up and destroyed, she says. You keep me tethered and grounded, Joy. If i didn't have you to be accountable to, I'd have gone off the rails long ago. I certainly wouldn't have made it this far in life.”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy

“Parenting isn’t about creating someone in your own image; it’s about giving them the clay to shape themselves as they see fit, and celebrating whatever form they end up taking.”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy

“When you live in the same place for most of your life, memories linger everywhere - every street corner, every restaurant, every train platform - to the point where everything reminds you of a time gone by. And eventually it feels like you're spending more time with memories than with the present,”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy

“I think reading a book beside someone you care about is one of the loveliest feelings. There's such intimacy in that shared silence.”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy

“What greater achievement is there than a friendship that’s lasted nearly a century, the fabric of it woven with the joys, sorrows, triumphs, and messiness of two lives forever intertwined? How lucky we both are, to have had that. Who says your greatest love has to be a romantic one?”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy: A Novel

“At the sound of his voice, Hettie turns her big brown eyes up to him with that adoring gaze dogs save for their favorite human. Her tail wags a cheerful beat at the other end of the tote.”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy: A Novel

“But you”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy: A Novel

“As Hazel watches me prepare the soup”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy: A Novel

“Who would have thought that, at eighty-nine years old, I'd be involved in an illicit drug deal?

Apparently, it's a precipitous downhill slope from pinching a library book to this.”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy

“it, he just said that there was”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy: A Novel

“There isn’t a precise moment when it happens. It’s a gradual fading away, like a bright painting in a sunny living room that becomes more muted over time. There are hints when invisibility descends, of course. On the bus, when, instead of meeting your eye, people seem to look through you. On the sidewalk, when they bustle past, not stopping to apologize when they bump you firmly enough to test your balance. At the doctor’s office, when they talk at you, rather than to you, dismissing your concerns and questions.
Eventually, you come to a disheartening realization. In society’s eyes you are superfluous and no longer have value to add.
Because you are an elderly woman.”
― Mikki Brammer, Good Joy, Bad Joy