Joy Shak

“A long marriage is complicated. So complicated, in fact, that most people in one sometimes ask themselves: 'Am I still married because I'm in love, or just because I can't be bothered to let anyone else get to know me this well again?”
― Fredrik Backman, Beartown

“I believe that most small towns wear two faces: a public one comprised of verifiable facts involving historical timelines, demographics, matters of economy and geography; and a hidden, considerably more private face formed by a fragile spiderweb of stories, memories, rumors, and secrets passed down from generation to generation, whispered by those who know the town best.”
― Richard Chizmar, Chasing the Boogeyman

“Time heals all wounds, they say. I’m here to tell you that time can wound you all on its own. In a long life, there is a singular moment when you know you’ve made more memories than any new ones you’ll ever make. That’s the moment your truest stories—the ones that made you the you that you became—are ever more in the front of your mind, as you begin to reach back for the you that you deemed best. So”
― Lynda Rutledge, West with Giraffes

“A wall is the defense of a country that values inaction. But a wall imprisons the people of a country as much as it protects them.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal