Hope and Other Punchlines Quotes

“Three things?” I ask. “I read about it in a book. Seems like a good way to get to know someone. Having to choose three things.”
― Julie Buxbaum, Hope and Other Punch Lines

“I’m so, so tired of always worrying about our world splitting into a before and an after again.”
― Julie Buxbaum, Hope and Other Punch Lines

“I know better than anyone that you can't always draw a straight line from the who you once were to the who you are right now.”
― Julie Buxbaum, Hope and Other Punchlines

“But something happens when the story you tell yourself turns out not to be your story at all. You have to figure out what to replace it with. Something needs to grow in the space left behind. [p. 280]”
― Julie Buxbaum, Hope and Other Punchlines

“You didn't write the Baby Hope story. I'm not saying you don't bear the burden of it, you obviously do, but you didn't write it. So it's not yours. Not really.”
― Julie Buxbaum, Hope and Other Punchlines

“You know what I think? I think the reason high school sucks is because it feels so small. Like a too-tight turtleneck, " Noah says. "And even if you are brave enough to molt, there's all these people around you still, like, holding up and showing you your old skin.”
― Julie Buxbaum, Hope and Other Punchlines

“Those are my favorite kind of punchlines. The curveballs that make total sense. Like you think the joke can only end with A or B, and somehow, the comedian finds C.”
― Julie Buxbaum, Hope and Other Punchlines

“There's no way in that in less than twenty-four hours you could make out with a cool girl, find out your dad, who you thought was alive all these years, is definitely, a hundred percent dead, and like this major hero, and then have your almost-first girlfriend die, who also happens to be be, like, this national icon. That would be too ridiculous, even for you, Noah.”
― Julie Buxbaum, Hope and Other Punchlines

“I want us to do a series of interviews with my grandmother and record some of her best stories and memories before they all get eaten up by her dementia. I want to literally make them into tangible things. Do you think you can help me?”
― Julie Buxbaum, Hope and Other Punch Lines

“Real kissing. My thoughts aren't thoughts anymore. I'm all sensation. Chills and butterflies and warmth in an addictive swirl.”
― Julie Buxbaum, Hope and Other Punchlines

“You really believe that? Everything happens for a reason?" I ask, because I can think of no good reason for those towers to fall, or for a kid to shoot up a middle school. Any conception of God I have doesn't allow for that sort of unimaginable horror.”
― Julie Buxbaum, Hope and Other Punchlines

“Now I don’t go anywhere except in sneakers.”
― Julie Buxbaum, Hope and Other Punch Lines

“Stories are like . . . the currency of connections.”
― Julie Buxbaum, Hope and Other Punchlines