Marie-Helene Bertino

“That can be the cruelest part of happiness--its tendency to disguise itself as boredom.”

— Marie-Helene Bertino

“They hurt me, these small, brutal kindnesses.”

— Marie-Helene Bertino

“When you're alone, you are in the right place to watch sadness approach like storm clouds over an open field. You can…

— Marie-Helene Bertino

“Her father is fastened to his room, with his records and his drugs and his quiet. She crawls under her covers. It…

— Marie-Helene Bertino

“Marcel was from Louisiana, so for four years Emily had been southern by association. She insisted on Lynchburg Lemonades. She scheduled interviews…

— Marie-Helene Bertino

“A monkey could do my job better and with more hilarious results.”

— Marie-Helene Bertino

“Gus doesn’t belong in this world. He was born with a Hollywood chin, a butter touch, and an ear that can hear…

— Marie-Helene Bertino

“In the jaundiced light of a streetlamp, Sarina realizes why people have children: to see the face of the one they love…

— Marie-Helene Bertino

“Hobbies are a way of staying present so humans do not have to think about death.”

— Marie-Helene Bertino

“We carry our ancestors in our names and sometimes we carry our ancestors through the sliding doors of emergency rooms and either…

— Marie-Helene Bertino

“But Madeline loves her father and how can you be scared of someone you love?”

— Marie-Helene Bertino

“Tonight, the Sisters of Saint Joseph and I are going to The Slaughterhouse Bar. I have four rolls of quarters and we…

— Marie-Helene Bertino

“I am quitting a boy like some people quit smoking. I am not quitting smoking.”

— Marie-Helene Bertino

“We stand at the doors and look out over the yard. Hundreds of deer gaze back at us. Deer and deer and…

— Marie-Helene Bertino

“Bob Dylan never has his own cigarettes. I thought this was charming at first.”

— Marie-Helene Bertino

“That they can really haul is what most people don't know about wild turkeys.”

— Marie-Helene Bertino

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

— Marie-Helene Bertino

“I am bad at asking for help. When you ask a human being for help, there is a chance they will say…

— Marie-Helene Bertino

“That can be the cruelest part of happiness--its tendency to disguise itself in boredom." - Marie-Helene Bertino, Safe as Houses , title story”

— Marie-Helene Bertino

“He's dead now and by dead I mean dating a stripper.”

— Marie-Helene Bertino

“Seeing his face after months was as immediate as a pointed gun.”

— Marie-Helene Bertino

“Once in a while, I smell Clive on my skin and it stops my day. It's a train crossing; I wait to…

— Marie-Helene Bertino

“The purpose of these children seems to be to congratulate the Pennypacks and to offer them a stray glove or scarf if…

— Marie-Helene Bertino

“Good morning, the city says. Fuck you.”

— Marie-Helene Bertino

“He had always listened to the music of a more sensitive man. She had let several relationship cruelties slide because of it.”

— Marie-Helene Bertino