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2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas QUOTES

2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas QUOTES

1 " If you are anything other than humbled in the presence of love, you are not in the presence of love. "

― Marie-Helene Bertino , 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas

2 " They're humble because they're in service. They know they have to practice when they are filled with love. When they are filled with bile. When the sun is out and everyone with a palpably alive soul is on the beach, they are in wood-paneled dumps, practicing. Until they ruin any chance at being substantial and there is no soul on earth who will have them. "

― Marie-Helene Bertino , 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas

3 " We carry our ancestors in our names and sometimes we carry our ancestors through the sliding doors of emergency rooms and either way they are heavy, man, either way we can't escape. "

― Marie-Helene Bertino , 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas

4 " You can’t say you know a city unless you know three ways to everywhere. "

― Marie-Helene Bertino , 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas

5 " Good morning, the city says. Fuck you. "

― Marie-Helene Bertino , 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas

6 " In the jaundiced light of a streetlamp, Sarina realizes why people have children: to see the face of the one they love at the ages they’ve missed... "

― Marie-Helene Bertino , 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas

7 " That’s a drummer’s love story. If you want a prettier one, you’ll be waiting forever. If you could separate your body into four distinct rhythms, you’d be cracked too "

― Marie-Helene Bertino , 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas

8 " I'm a minor character in my own life. "

― Marie-Helene Bertino , 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas

9 " What am I supposed to do," she says. "Wait?" She wants him to say, Yes, wait. I will be home as soon as I run this one errand. Ben perceives disgust in her tone. Why would anyone wait for him? A boy who didn't know how to be a prom date, a man who knows what he needs, but too late.
He releases her arm. His voice is professional with sorrow. "You certainly couldn't do that." He means because she is precious. Sarina hears that she is snotty and unkind. He means because he is not that lucky; she hears: he is bored.
No one says "I want you to wait," and no one says "I'll wait. "

― Marie-Helene Bertino , 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas

10 " If there were a race among all artists to the human heart, my money would be on music to win. It knows a shortcut. "

― Marie-Helene Bertino , 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas

11 " Saying good-bye to Ben is Sarina's least favorite activity. So sad the number of times she's had to do it. Ball games, recitals, the homes of friends, rented shore houses, through car windows after dropping off some forgotten camera to Annie. Goodbye. See you later. Nice seeing you. She has mastered it: A dismissive peck on the cheek. A hug like an afterthought. Telling herself, Do not watch him walk away. Watching him walk away. Watching him drive away. Watching him descend the stairs to the subway. How many times have they said goodbye to each other? Already tonight, twice.
He interrupts her before she can get the second goodbye out.
"How would you feel," he says, "about missing your train?"
Once at the beach, Sarina watched a crane bathing in a gully at dusk. It used its wings to funnel the water over its back, then shook out the excess in a firework of droplets. After several minutes it took off, arcing out over the fretless sea. That felt like this. "

― Marie-Helene Bertino , 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas

12 " It is dark, dark seven A.M. on Christmas Eve Eve. "

― Marie-Helene Bertino , 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas

13 " The way that woman walked, like she was paying the sidewalk a favor. "

― Marie-Helene Bertino , 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas

14 " But Madeline loves her father and how can you be scared of someone you love? "

― Marie-Helene Bertino , 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas

15 " 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? "

― Marie-Helene Bertino , 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas

16 " 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. "

― Marie-Helene Bertino , 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas

17 " 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. "

― Marie-Helene Bertino , 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas

18 " 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 "

― Marie-Helene Bertino , 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas

19 " Madeleine has never had a caramel apple and she wants to taste one more than she wants God's love. "

― Marie-Helene Bertino , 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas

20 " 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. "

― Marie-Helene Bertino , 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas