Mary Wilke Quotes in Manhattan (1979)

[On her ex-husband]

Mary Wilke: I was tired of submerging my identity to a very brilliant, dominating man. He's a genius.

Isaac Davis: Oh really, he was a genius, Helen's a genius and Dennis is a genius. You know a lot of geniuses, y'know. You should meet some stupid people once in a while, y'know, you could learn something.

Mary Wilke: [reading aloud from Issac's wife's memoir] "He was given to fits of rage, Jewish liberal paranoia, male chauvinism, self-righteous misanthropy, and nihilistic moods of despair. He had complaints about life but never any solutions. He longed to be an artist but balked at the necessary sacrifices. In his most private moments, he spoke of his fear of death, which he elevated to tragic heights when in fact it was mere narcissism."

Mary Wilke: Facts?I got a million facts at my fingertips.

Isaac Davis: That's right, and they don't mean a thing, right? Because nothing worth knowing can be understood with the mind. Everything really valuable has to enter you through a different opening, if you'll forgive the disgusting imagery.

Isaac Davis: It's an interesting group of people, your friends are.

Mary Wilke: I know.

Isaac Davis: Like the cast of a Fellini movie.

Isaac Davis: I got a kid, he's being raised by two women at the moment.

Mary Wilke: Oh, y'know, I mean I think that works. Uh, they made some studies, I read in one of the psychoanalytic quarterlies. You don't need a male, I mean. Two mothers are absolutely fine.

Isaac Davis: Really? Because I always feel very few people survive one mother.

Mary Wilke: I'm honest, whaddya want? I say what's on my mind and, if you can't take it, well then fuck off!

Isaac Davis: And I like the way you express yourself too, y'know, it's pithy yet degenerate. You get many dates?

Isaac Davis: You certainly fooled me.

[crosstalk]

Mary Wilke: What do you mean?

Isaac Davis: I mean, I was shocked. 'cause that's not what - this is not what I expected.

Mary Wilke: What did you expect?

Isaac Davis: I don't know. You said you, you know, you had always led me to - I uh - you said that, that he was a great ladies' man.

[cosstalk]

Mary Wilke: Yeah.

Isaac Davis: And that he opened you up sexually...

Mary Wilke: So? So?

Isaac Davis: So I - you know, and then this little homunculus is here.

Mary Wilke: [sneers]

Isaac Davis: Really? Well, see you know

[shaking head]

Isaac Davis: I, it's, I - It's amazing how subjective all that stuff is.

Mary Wilke: Well tell me, why did you get a divorce?

Isaac Davis: Why? I got a divorce because my ex-wife left me for another woman.

Mary Wilke: Really? God, that must have been really demoralizing.

Isaac Davis: Well, I dunno, I thought I took it rather well under the circumstances. I tried to run them both over with a car.

Isaac Davis: So what does, what does your analyst say? I mean, did you speak to him?

Mary Wilke: Well, Donnie's in a coma, he had a very bad acid experience.

Mary Wilke: What are you thinking?

Isaac Davis: I dunno, I was just thinking. There must be something wrong with me, because I've never had a relationship with a woman that's lasted longer than the one between Hitler and Eva Braun.

Mary Wilke: Don't psychoanalyze me. I pay a doctor for that.

Isaac Davis: Hey, you call that guy that you talk to a doctor? I mean, you don't get suspicious when your analyst calls you at home at three in the morning and weeps into the telephone?

Mary Wilke: All right, so he's unorthodox. He's a highly qualified doctor.

Isaac Davis: He's done a great job on you, y'know. Your self esteem is like a notch below Kafka's.

Isaac Davis: I give the whole thing... four weeks. That's it.

Mary Wilke: I, I can't plan that far in advance.

Isaac Davis: You can't plan four weeks in advance?

Mary Wilke: No!

Isaac Davis: What kind of foresight is that?

Isaac Davis: The steel cube was brilliant?

Mary Wilke: Yes. To me it was very textual, you know what I mean? It was perfectly integrated, and it had a marvelous kind of negative capability. The rest of the stuff downstairs was bullshit.

Mary Wilke: Isn't it beautiful out?

Isaac Davis: Yeah, it's really so pretty when the light starts to come up.

Mary Wilke: Yeah, I know. I love it.

Isaac Davis: Boy, this is really a great city, I don't care what anybody s-s - it's really a knock-out, you know?

Mary Wilke: I guess I should straighten my life out, huh? I mean, Donnie my analyst is always telling me...

Isaac Davis: You call your analyst Donnie?

Mary Wilke: Yeah, I call him Donnie.

Isaac Davis: Donnie, your analyst? I call mine Dr. Chomsky, y'know, he hits me with a ruler.

Yale: You know we have to stop seeing each other, don't you.

Mary Wilke: Oh, yeah. Right. Right. I understand. I could tell by the sound of your voice on the phone. Very authoritative, y'know. Like the pope, or the computer in 2001.