“Once in a while, I smell Clive on my skin and it stops my day. It's a train crossing; I wait to pass. Eventually the lights stop flashing, the barriers lift. I keep moving.” — Marie-Helene Bertino Copy Share Image
“That can be the cruelest part of happiness--its tendency to disguise itself as boredom.” — Marie-Helene Bertino Copy Share Image
“When you're alone, you are in the right place to watch sadness approach like storm clouds over an open field. You can sit in a chair and get ready for it. As it moves through you, you can reach out your hands and feel all the edges. When it passes and you can drink coffee again you even miss it… — Marie-Helene Bertino Copy Share
“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… — Marie-Helene Bertino Copy Share
“Marcel was from Louisiana, so for four years Emily had been southern by association. She insisted on Lynchburg Lemonades. She scheduled interviews around the Gators. She championed gentility. Anyone at a dinner party who thought they could tell a joke making fun of the region encountered a faceful of Emily, quick and ferocious as a convert, as a woman who… — Marie-Helene Bertino Copy Share
“A monkey could do my job better and with more hilarious results.” — Marie-Helene Bertino Copy Share Image
“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… — Marie-Helene Bertino Copy Share
“In the jaundiced light of a streetlamp, Sarina realizes why people have children: to see the face of the one they love at the… — Marie-Helene Bertino Copy Share Image
“Hobbies are a way of staying present so humans do not have to think about death.” — Marie-Helene Bertino Copy Share Image
“We carry our ancestors in our names and sometimes we carry our ancestors through the sliding doors of emergency rooms and either way they… — Marie-Helene Bertino Copy Share Image
“But Madeline loves her father and how can you be scared of someone you love?” — Marie-Helene Bertino Copy Share Image
“Tonight, the Sisters of Saint Joseph and I are going to The Slaughterhouse Bar. I have four rolls of quarters and we are going… — Marie-Helene Bertino Copy Share Image
