Jamie Brambley

“That was one of the things about him. He walked this line between the comic and the poignant, between the certainly doomed and the hopelessly hopeful. In time I came to think it the common ground of all humanity.”
― Niall Williams, This Is Happiness

“Because there were fewer sources of where to find out anything, there was more listening.”
― Niall Williams, This Is Happiness

“Now, as far as I was concerned, there are two ways of living, and because we're on a ball in space these were more or less exactly poles apart. The first, accept the world as it is. The world is concrete and considerable, with beauties and flaws both, and both immense, profound and perplexing, and if you can take it as it is and for what it is you'll all but guarantee an easier path, because it's a given that acceptance is one of the keys to any kind of contentment. The second, that acceptance is surrender, that there's a place for it, but that place is somewhere just before your last breath where you say "All right then, I have tried" and accept that you have lived and loved as best you could, have pushed against every wall, stood up after every disappointment, and until that last moment, you shouldn't accept anything, you should make things better.”
― Niall Williams, This Is Happiness

“Neighbours, as Jesus knew, can be a not insignificant challenge to anyone’s Christianity.”
― Niall Williams, This Is Happiness