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Quote by Lucia Berlin

“Sally wasn't crying about their dead mother or her cancer. She was crying because her husband, Alfonso, had left her after twenty years for a young woman. It seemed a brutal thing to do, just after her mastectomy. She was devastated, but no, she wouldn't ever divorce him, even though the woman was pregnant and he wanted to marry her. "They can just wait until I die. I'll be dead soon, probably next year..." Sally wept but the ocean drowned out the sound.”

Quote by Lucia Berlin

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A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories

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Lucia Berlin

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“V frowned. There was only a hissing sound coming from the voice mail. But then a clatter had him yanking the phone away from his ear. Now Butch's voice, hard, loud: "Dematerialize. Dematerialize now." A scared male: "But-but-" "Now! For fuck's sake, get your ass out of here..." Sounds of muffled flapping. "Why are you doing this? You're just a human-" "I am so sick of hearing that. Leave!" There was a metallic shifting, a gun being reloaded. Butch's voice: "Oh,shit..." Then all hell broke loose. Gunshots, grunts, thuds. V leaped up from his desk so fast he knocked his chair over.”

“History is the story of what led up to now. It is the present that interests us—that and the future. The future will be partly determined by the present. Thus, you can learn something about the future, too, from a historian, even from one who like Thucydides lived more than two thousand years ago. Let us sum up these two suggestions for reading history. The first is: if you can, read more than one history of an event or period that interests you. The second is: read a history not only to learn what really happened at a particular time and place in the past, but also to learn the way men act in all times and places, especially now. [How to Read a Book (1972), P. 236]”

“Why doesn't it bother her? Seriously, it doesn't. She's not putting on a front. She's in a serious relationship with a guy who has sex with other women for a living, and it doesn't matter to her." "I married a cop." Roarke smiled at her. "We all have our levels of acceptance. He was an LC when they met, just as she was a doctor, and one who often works in dangerous areas of the city." She shot him the same easy smile. "So...if I'd been an LC when we met, you wouldn't have any problem with me banging other guys. Professionally." "None at all, as I'd kick your ass and murder all of them. But that's my level of acceptance.”