Mischa Berlinski > Quotes

“The world makes you, and then you see it through the eyes it gives you.”
― Mischa Berlinski, Peacekeeping

“The world makes you, and then you see it through the eyes it gives you. Another man sees the same world, but he doesn't have the same eyes.”
― Mischa Berlinski, Peacekeeping

“The thing of it was, Phil should have understood that Mona was vulnerable. You shouldn’t need to tell your husband that now was the moment to be inflamed with jealousy. You shouldn’t need to explain to him why. That was the whole point of marriage—that there was someone in your life you could count on to be paying attention. Had Phil displayed such an alarming, even offensive lack of jealousy precisely because he was unfaithful himself?”
― Mischa Berlinski, Mona Acts Out: A Novel

“She handed cutting boards and knives to Sheila and Bruce also, and they began to chop too, happy like dogs and children to have an important job.”
― Mischa Berlinski, Mona Acts Out: A Novel

“Mona lay in bed waiting for the narcotics to work, thinking wistfully about her phone. It was locked in the mailbox in the lobby.”
― Mischa Berlinski, Mona Acts Out: A Novel

“Like Mona, Sheila could hear the timer of Bruce’s patience ticking. When it sounded, she would be abandoned by the conversational herd like a sick and boring wildebeest and no one would listen to her again all day.”
― Mischa Berlinski, Mona Acts Out: A Novel

“I just want you to be happy,” Phil said. She did not understand how Phil could fail to understand the cruelty in such a remark, how slippery and manipulative it was. Phil did not want her to be happy; Phil wanted a happy wife.”
― Mischa Berlinski, Mona Acts Out: A Novel

“missing’ woman mystery solved A mix-up at the Glen Marnoch distillery led a group of Brazilian tourists spending a rainy Saturday night searching for a missing woman who was actually with them the entire time. The group was visiting distilleries and had stopped to enjoy drinks at sunset. A head count revealed someone was missing. The woman, who had changed her jacket and scarf, didn’t match the missing person’s description and pitched in to help look. Confusion ended just before dawn when they figured out that the “missing” woman had been with them all along.”
― Mischa Berlinski, Mona Acts Out: A Novel

“Bruce’s happiness, already significant, increased: there was something in Bruce that abhorred a dull knife, but loved discussing dull knives.”
― Mischa Berlinski, Mona Acts Out: A Novel

“Phil did not want her to be happy; Phil wanted a happy wife. There was a difference.”
― Mischa Berlinski, Mona Acts Out: A Novel

“Scholars of Mona and Phil’s marriage will now recall the Great Fights of 2002, 2007, and 2011, the Peace Conference of 2013, and, just a couple of years back, the Very Serious Discussion.”
― Mischa Berlinski, Mona Acts Out: A Novel

“So you just call up people and make sure they’re exhausted tomorrow too?” “I wanted to hear your voice.” Under ordinary circumstances, such a statement would have meant so much. But coming from Milton in the middle of the night, maybe it meant only that he’d been awake and bored. Or maybe it meant so much after all. Mona was never sure. Mona didn’t really want to be sure one way or the other way. She didn’t want to be Milton’s latest mistress and she didn’t want to be in love with Milton, but she didn’t want to rule it out either. She liked the middle place.”
― Mischa Berlinski, Mona Acts Out: A Novel

“Mona sat in the late-fall sunshine outside Vanessa Levin’s house and wondered why she had been so resistant to that thought, which seemed to her now both true and slightly banal. Of course she’d been after a daddy—just like Vanessa back then, both of them agreeing to sleep with Milton, and worship Milton, to substitute for inadequate paternal love, just like so many other women in Milton’s complicated little harem over the years. And not just Milton’s harem: Cleopatra went through one powerful older Roman general after another. Mona married Phil. Sheila married Bruce. None of it was so mysterious or subtle at all, or so terrible for that matter: at the end of the long day, a good daddy was a good thing to have.”
― Mischa Berlinski, Mona Acts Out: A Novel