Collected Stories

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, sh*t. 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] 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:
Are you going to survive this tutorial or will you require oxygen?

Ruth Steiner:
Some things you don't touch.

Ruth Steiner:
[Critiquing Lisa's writing style, with a smirk on her face] 'fabulous green water balloons'?

Ruth Steiner:
[to Lisa] Every time you straighten up something disappears.

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!

Ruth Steiner:
It's my life, damn it! You appropriated my life!

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] 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.