Happiness Falls Quotes

“Harmonee used to say that shame is the most powerful and long-lasting emotion we have, that scanning through her seventy-plus years of memories, the moments that felt unbearably intense at the time - teenage first love, childbirth, the deaths of loved ones - have mellowed over the years, but remembering the moments she's ashamed of, even from childhood, she still feels the rise of heat, the flush on her face, its intensity not only undiminished but possibly even growing over time.”
― Angie Kim

“The main and frustration this boy must have endured his whole life. having thoughts and words he desperately wants to express but couldn't, fearing this might continue for the rest of his life.

Whether you're an immigrant, you stutter, or have autism, aphasia/dyspraxia, Angelman syndrome---there are so many reasons why you might have trouble speaking, unrelated to the quality of your thoughts.

...our society's deeply ingrained assumption that oral fluency is equivalent to intelligence. Just because you can't speak doesn't mean you can't think or understand.”
― Angie Kim

“I think kids have their secret favorite parent, and for me, it's always been Dad, which I think had to do with my seeing him as valuable to society, someone I wanted to emulate. But I thought how unfair that was, how that view of him came at the price of my seeing Mom as "merely" our caretaker. His noble generoisty wasn't that - or maybe it was, but it's easy to be generous when you've taken so much.”
― Angie Kim