- Ruth Steiner: What you have to say means a great deal to me, you know?
- Lisa Morrison: No, I didn't know that.
- Ruth Steiner: [Taken aback] No? How could you not know that? It goes both ways you know. Am I supposed to give and give and expect nothing in return?
- Lisa Morrison: No, of course not.
- Ruth Steiner: I can't just applaud you and pat you on the back and give you unconditional love and support. I know I've been your teacher and your champion, but I'm also your friend and I could use a little reassurance too you know?
- [Begins to tear up]
- Lisa Morrison: Ruth, what is it?
- Ruth Steiner: It's very complicated for me.
- Lisa Morrison: What is?
- Ruth Steiner: What's happening for you, it's very complicated for me.
- Lisa Morrison: Ruth, are you jealous?
- Ruth Steiner: Please don't condescend!
- Lisa Morrison: I'm not. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to...
- Ruth Steiner: It's not about envy.
- [pause]
- Ruth Steiner: Maybe it is about envy, but it's not about professional jealousy.
- [Long pause]
- Ruth Steiner: you know what it is? I'm jealous that you have all of life ahead of you and I can't just sit back and watch you do the dance I danced so long ago and not think about time. That's what it is. Don't you see?
- [Wiping away tears]
- Ruth Steiner: It's about time.
- Ruth Steiner: what you've done is mimicry. It's not art. It's not homage. It's parody... you have no right.
- Lisa Morrison: No right? What about my right as an artist?
- Ruth Steiner: Well that right you have to earn!
- Ruth Steiner: [Looking down at her desk] Where's the pile that was here?
- Lisa Morrison: Oh, well I straightened up.
- Ruth Steiner: What do you mean you straightened- oh no, oh God no. Why did you do that?
- Lisa Morrison: Uh, remember, before you left you I asked you if you'd like me to straighten up.
- Ruth Steiner: [Becoming frazzled] Straighten up, yes, not reorganize my life. I did not authorize you to reorganize my life. Oh God, when you said, "Straighten up" I thought you meant take a schmata and dust. Now how am I going to find anything?
- Lisa Morrison: Just ask me. What are you looking for?
- Ruth Steiner: I don't wanna ask you!
- Lisa Morrison: Well I'll tell you exactly where it is. I didn't throw anything out or anything. I just made neater piles.
- Ruth Steiner: Well I don't want neater piles. I like my piles the way they are.
- Lisa Morrison: Sorry. I didn't mean to...
- Ruth Steiner: There was a method to my madness that has served me very well all these years.
- Lisa Morrison: I'm really, really sorry. I was only trying to... I'll put everything back the way...
- Ruth Steiner: [as Lisa approaches to help] Please don't! Just leave it.
- [Lisa turns and walks away, hurt]
- Ruth Steiner: Aw, shit. You're not going to cry, are you?
- Lisa Morrison: What did I do that any good writer wouldn't have done, that you wouldn't have done yourself?
- [Ruth's face shows disbelief of Lisa's ignorance]
- Lisa Morrison: a story grabbed me and...
- Ruth Steiner: [Waving her finger] No darling, that's where you're wrong, it didn't grab you, you SEIZED it!
- Ruth Steiner: [Critiquing Lisa's writing style, with a smirk on her face] 'fabulous green water balloons'?
- Ruth Steiner: You crossed the line, sweetie. You crossed the line.
- Lisa Morrison: Why, because it involves you?
- Ruth Steiner: Yeah! I would think that would have something to do with it, yes. I was a fellow writer telling you these stories, not a longshoreman or a waitress. For God's sake, a fellow writer. It was a matter of professional courtesy, I would think. What was I supposed to do, uh, proclaim them off limits, plant a flag, get you to SIGN SOMETHING? You were my friend, god damn it!
- Lisa Morrison: I wish you wouldn't use the past tense!
- Lisa Morrison: What exactly is so offensive to you? I don't understand it.
- Ruth Steiner: You don't?
- Lisa Morrison: No.
- Ruth Steiner: [Slowly] You've stolen my stories, Lisa, MY stories. What am I without my stories? I'm nothing. I'm a cipher. I'm as good as dead.
- Ruth Steiner: You know what? Not only have you usurped my love affair, oh no, you took my entire milieu and passed it off as your own.
- Lisa Morrison: How? I don't know what you mean.
- Lisa Morrison: You DON'T? Jewish intellectual life, new york in the 60's. Jesus, Delmore was one thing but to take on territory that is so identifiably mine?
- Lisa Morrison: [Referring to a scandal involving Woody Allen] No moral dilemmas whatsoever.
- [Pointing out a newspaper article]
- Lisa Morrison: Did you see that in here? How could he find 'no moral dilemmas, whatsoever'?
- Ruth Steiner: [Smirking] He wasn't looking so he didn't find any.