The 158-Pound Marriage Quotes
"My wife, Utchka, could teach patience to a time bomb."
"History takes time; I resist writing about people who are still alive."
"For history you need a camera with two lenses – the telephoto and the kind of close-up with a fine, penetrating focus."
"Utch’s mother was raped again, several months after the SS left, by some of the village menfolk."
"Utch lay in the belly of the cow for two days and two nights while the Russians wasted the village of Eichbüchl."
"Patience is a form of loyalty, but he never understood that about her."
"Whatever she puts her love in, she will trust."
"Utch was right; it’s the kind of thing I can use."
"It’s commonly said in that part of France that the moral of ‘The Smile of Reims’ is that when there’s a war on, and you’re in it, don’t be happy; you insult both the enemy and your allies."
"I think of how often I told Severin Winter this story, I could break my teeth!"
"She thought that memorial funerals were a rather nice way to die, considering the other kinds of dying she had known."
"What if, for example, Utch had gone to Russia? And if the world were flat, as the poet says, people would be falling off all the time."
"Kudashvili and the occupying force of the Soviet Army left Vienna in 1955. The day they left is called Flag Day in Austria now; very few Viennese were sorry to see them go."
"She realized that it was enviable to have breasts like hers, but that she had to learn what to do with them."
"Utch had moved out of the Schwindgasse apartment, but she still brought her laundry – considerably out of her way – to old Drexa Neff."
"It was unthinkable that you wouldn’t do it; it was unwarranted to complain."
"When you don’t owe anybody anything, you’re free."
"Utch wasn’t free; what’s more, she didn’t think it cause for self-pity."
"The Hungarian revolution must have been something of a wonder to Utch; from her peculiar point of view, the notion of ‘dying for one’s own freedom’ must have seemed like a terrible self-indulgence."
"She felt guilty that she did not miss Kudashvili as much as she thought she would."
"That’s the point about Utch: she never once thought about not going."
"I don’t think that Severin ever realized what was rare about Utch."
"She was falling in love with Vienna, but when Kudashvili was ready she would go to Russia."
"There’s a precious amount of having-one’s-cake-and-eating-it-too shit going on around here!"
"I want to stay in clean little hotels; I want to be on the ocean. It’s warm there now, but it’s not the tourist season. Nothing lavish, but deny nothing! Eat well, drink well, take some good books along, read in the sun, swim."
"Greece is the first thing. That’s where I want to go."
"I remember once when the four of us stayed overnight at the Winters’ – all the children, too. We hauled mattresses into the TV room and parked the children there to be mesmerized by various Late Show horrors; they ate potato chips all night."
"He said his love for Edith was almost rational, but that there was nothing reasonable about the way he loved his children."
"He said they were his substitute for an adventurous, explorative life. With children, his life would always be dangerous; he was grateful for that."
"We historical novelists are frequently struck by meaningless coincidences, but I wondered if I knew Utch at all – and whether the four of us were wise to want to find out more about each other than we already knew."
"Caught twice at the same act! How stupid can he be!"
"I never knew so many Cubans went to live in Nicaragua."