Home > Author > Marie-Helene Bertino
21 " It is dark, dark seven A.M. on Christmas Eve Eve. "
― Marie-Helene Bertino , 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas
22 " The way that woman walked, like she was paying the sidewalk a favor. "
23 " But Madeline loves her father and how can you be scared of someone you love? "
24 " That can be the cruelest part of happiness--its tendency to disguise itself as boredom. "
― Marie-Helene Bertino , Safe as Houses
25 " He's dead now and by dead I mean dating a stripper. "
26 " I am bad at asking for help. When you ask a human being for help, there is a chance they will say later, Remember when you asked for help? Can I have five dollars? That goes for medicine, too. I don't like asking help from pills in a bottle. I don't want to be woken up at night by a tab of aspirin asking to borrow five dollars. "
27 " Her father is fastened to his room, with his records and his drugs and his quiet. She crawls under her covers. It is her fault for triggering one of his spells. Normally she can tightrope through his moods. At least it had been brief. Most girls do not have to deal with a father like hers. They would be afraid of the way she lives, lawless in a roachy apartment. They would be scared of his fits. Madeleine would be scared too, she thinks, falling asleep. If she had only experienced finished basements and dads who acted like dads. But Madeleine loves her father, and how can you be scared of someone you love? "
28 " Gus doesn’t belong in this world. He was born with a Hollywood chin, a butter touch, and an ear that can hear rhythms tapped out from Neptune. In another life he would have been drumming in Johnny Carson’s band, drinking water out of a mug. But in this one he has a disease and he can’t say no to shysters like Charlie, who uses his wife and kid to cheat on Gus’s lousy, glowing heart. "
29 " Madeleine stares through the window into the courtyard. On most days she feels something staring back: a God or a mother-shaped benevolent force. Today, nothing reciprocates. The streamers on the chained bicycles lift in the indifferent breeze. She is alone in old stockings she's repaired twice but still run. Life will be nothing but errands and gray nights. "
30 " happiness is so elusive it may as well be supernatural. "
― Marie-Helene Bertino , Parakeet
31 " In reality, happiness is so elusive it may as well be supernatural. "
32 " I will have thousands upon thousands of days and this is merely one of them. This thought brings relief. "
33 " She is officiating the marriage of two bottles of ketchup; overturning one and balancing it on the mouth of the other so it can empty its shit. The "
34 " Madeleine has never had a caramel apple and she wants to taste one more than she wants God's love. "
35 " The trash bags are gone, the bar wiped clean. The lights have been hung; they line the stage and loop around the Snakehead, making the old axe glow. Stalled in the doorway, Lorca experiences a stomachache he can only call Christmas. "
36 " I am quitting a boy like some people quit smoking. I am not quitting smoking. "
37 " We stand at the doors and look out over the yard. Hundreds of deer gaze back at us. Deer and deer and deer and deer and deer. Their blue chests heave in the dark. Their trembling cotton throats. "
38 " I was fond of him immediately, in the way we feel kinship to those who compliment us. "
― Marie-Helene Bertino
39 " Bob Dylan never has his own cigarettes. I thought this was charming at first. "
40 " The heavy thud of the front door closing. He leaves the phone on the desk. The hallway is dark and long and empty. "Louisa?" His voice echoes against the walls as if he is asking himself her name. "