“Nothing is new, Martin, just open for reinterpretation.”
– Masha
2.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t sure when you were going to finish speaking.”
– Martin
3.
There’s only one you, and isn’t that wonderful.
Nine Perfect Strangers
4.
Agnes: I came here because I received a call. I answered it because that’s what I’ve been doing my whole life. I came here because I’m looking for absolution. And only she can grant that.
Tina: Masha?
Agnes: God.
5.
Peter: Why don’t you ask Matteo what his dad’s like?
Imogen: Okay.
Matteo: My father is dead. My mother too. A long time now without them now. I don’t know maybe 13, 14 years, so…
Imogen: What happened?
Matteo: War.
6.
Brian: I totally lost it.
Tina: I don’t know. It seems like you kinda found it.
7.
Imogen: It’s the Vatican, mother, not the Golden Globes.
Victoria: Well, darling, they’re both just money-laundering schemes with fabulous wardrobes.
8.
“You know how I can tell it was a good night? When the girl tries to sneak off before I’m awake.”
– Peter
9.
Imogen: Just tell me what you actually want, Peter. Do you want me to go get my stuff, and maybe spend some time here with you, or do you want me to move back in with my mother and her deeply cologned lover who I’m pretty sure was born after the Spice Girls broke up.
Peter: Let me see if I get this right. Um, you want me, to tell you what I want.
Imogen: Yes.
Peter: What I really, really want?
10.
Brian: And uh, where, where is Victoria? Matteo: Uh, she no is here. Imogen: Is she not coming? Matteo: No, uh, she has a, she has a sprained feelings.
Nine Perfect Strangers
Brian: …and uh, where, where is Victoria?
Matteo: Uh, she no is here.
Imogen: Is she not coming?
Matteo: No, uh, she has a, she has a sprained feelings.
11.
“Well, sometimes people fail because they don’t care, and sometimes people fail because they care too much.”
– Brian
12.
“Everyone deserves a best friend, and maybe your best friend is you.”
– Brian
13.
“Butterflies, I once read, they are, um, they are symbols, the souls of the dead. They move through purgatory on their way to paradise. I ask about them when I was a child and they told me this, and so, I thought how beautiful was this painting in this place. How beautiful that they were there to fly through my room like this to say goodbye one last time.”
– Matteo
14.
“I want my pain. Because my pain is mine.”
Nine Perfect Strangers
15.
“These people, they think that they want to run away from their sadness, to bury it in the grave or to wear it like a…like a badge. My family…I miss them so much. Every day. I don’t want not to miss them, to forget that they are gone. My pain, as you say, my grief, it’s happened to me. But it’s not all that I am. I’m a boy who was loved and lost this love. The thing that everyone—everyone fears most in their life, and it’s happened to me, so yes, there is pain. But there is no fear of loss, because…I already lost. So, I can have nothing to fear. There is only one me. And isn’t that wonderful?”
– Matteo
16.
Masha: The session is complete. You are free to go.
Matteo: Oh, was it okay?
Masha: Perfect.
17.
“There’s so much of me right there, right there inside of you. Whether you like it or not, you’re never gonna lose me.”
– Victoria
18.
“A truly meaningful form of therapy can help to heal the individual, but it can also, in a small way, heal the world. And sometimes you shouldn’t deal with pain gently. Sometimes you’re gonna need to grab it and punch it in the face.
– Masha
19.
“Well, the more power you have, the more opportunity you have, whether you like it or not, to hurt people. Now you blame me for these bombs my company’s technology created, but I didn’t start the war. I didn’t call in the airstrike. I’m not sitting in the cockpit pulling the, uh…you know, the…trigger, trigger.”
– David
20.
“The vibes are not good.”
– Tina
21.
“Sometimes, the lies you let people believe are just as important as the truth.”
– Victoria
22.
“Why would you think that putting some sort of narcissist at the center of a morality play would be a punishment? Okay, he wants to be the main character. He revels in it. You’ve made him the star.”
– Peter
23.
I need to let you go. I need to let you go just for this moment. Just for this life.
Nicole Stawiarski is a freelance writer who has authored hundreds of articles for digital publications, ranging from TV and film reviews to horoscopes and personal essays. Whether she’s analyzing plotlines or personalities, she takes a layered, nuanced approach to the human experience to forge meaningful connections with readers.