Marriage Story

"I never really came alive for myself; I was only feeding his aliveness."

"[Reading Nicole's letter to Henry] I fell in love with him two seconds after I saw him. And I'll never stop loving him, even though it doesn't make sense anymore."

"People don't accept mothers who drink too much wine and yell at their child and call him an asshole. I get it. I do it too. We can accept an imperfect dad. Let's face it, the idea of a good father was only invented like 30 years ago. Before that, fathers were expected to be silent and absent and unreliable and selfish, and can all say we want them to be different. But on some basic level, we accept them. We love them for their fallibilities, but people absolutely don't accept those same failings in mothers. We don't accept it structurally and we don't accept it spiritually. Because the basis of our Judeo-Christian whatever is Mary, Mother of Jesus, and she's perfect. She's a virgin who gives birth, unwaveringly supports her child and holds his dead body when he's gone. And the dad isn't there. He didn't even do the fuckin'. God is in heaven. God is the father and God didn't show up. So, you have to be perfect, and Charlie can be a fuck up and it doesn't matter. You will always be held to a different, higher standard. And it's fucked up, but that is the way it is."

"Getting divorced with a kid is one of the hardest things to do. It's like a death without a body."

"I want you to know that eventually this'll all be over, and whatever we win or lose, it'll be the two of you having to figure this out together."

"And keep in mind, you'll have to pay for her lawyer. [...] Well, at least part of her. It doesn't make sense, does it? I mean, you're doing this because you love your kid. And in doing so, you're draining money from your kid's education."

"Ted: Criminal lawyers see bad people at their best, divorce lawyers see good people at their worst."

"Frank: Charlie, what you're going through now is going to be horrible, but it will be over. Fuck as many people as you can right now. Women, men. Take what I said seriously."

"Sandra: Even though I am 64 and have a dead gay husband, I manage to get up every day, live my life, and feel pretty good about myself."

"Scarlett Johansson – Nicole Barber"

"- Charlie Barber"

"Laura Dern – Nora Fanshaw"

"Alan Alda – Bert Spitz"

"Ray Liotta – Jay Moratta"

"Azhy Robertson – Henry Barber"

"- Nancy Katz"

"Mark O'Brien – Carter Mitchum"

"- Mary Ann"

"- Mediator"

"- Judge Neil Tilden"