State of Mind

Anne Bellowes:
Before our session, he hadn't spoken to another human being in months, and now he's ready for a new day.

Cordelia Banks:
Well, you are the Annie Sullivan of mental health.

James Lecroix:
[excited] You're glowing.

Anne Bellowes:
New soap.

James Lecroix:
New soap produces love bites CNN reports.

James Lecroix:
You know what Henry James said?

Anne Bellowes:
No.

James Lecroix:
"We work in the dark, we do what we can, we give what we have."

Anne Bellowes:
[to her clients] What is it with you people? I mean, you have looks, you've luck, you have IQs over 75, no apparent physical disabilities, and all you do is piss and moan about how you deserve better. You don't deserve better. Of course she doesn't want to sleep with you - you're like an ice cube all day; wild turkeys do a better job at foreplay. Of course he doesn't listen to you, not one kind or supportive word comes out of your mouth. What do you think, marriage is easy? It's not. It's not easy. Y-you're in a little lifeboat, you morons, in a big, cold ocean, and there you both are, too lazy to row, too selfish to do one inch more than your share. And there's a hole in the boat, and what do you do? "You fix it." "No, you fix it." "I fixed it the last time." "It's your fault." "No, it's your fault." Believe me, it's not the other person's fault! It's yours. Do you offer the other a hand? Do you row when the other one gets tired? Do you forgive? Do you apologize, as everyone needs to, a lot, for... for our mistakes, for our accidental cruelties, for the ways in which we disappoint each other all the time? No, you just sit there, co-captains, of the what's-in-it-for-me team, waiting for someone else - apparently the marriage fairy - to fix it. There is no marriage fairy, people! You either help each other, or the marriage dies! And then there you are, two more people treading water alone and cold, and wondering what went wrong. Shut up about your needs, shut up about the past. Do more. Give more. Give what you never got. Love each other more than you deserve. For God's sake!