Peggy: I thought everything was going great but now I have this terrible feeling about Abe. I think he’s going to end it.

Joan: Why?

Peggy: He wants to have dinner, and he knows week nights are hard, and we saw each other last night, and he wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Joan: Well, it has been my experience that when a man insists on a meal he has something important to say.

It’s usually a proposal.

Peggy: really?

That’s you…

Joan: Men don’t take the time to end things. They ignore you until you insist on a declaration of hate.

in Mad Men, season 5, episode 7, “At the Codfish Ball”.

[…]
Roger: I can see you, you’re beautiful.
Jane: You always say that. It’s all you ever say.
Roger: Now I know why your friends are so smart.
Jane: Catherine is not my friend, she’s my doctor.
Roger: I knew that, but I didn’t know it.
Jane: Sometimes I think she knows me better than you do.
Roger: Do I want to know?
Jane: Probably not.
Roger: Because it’s over?
Jane: She’s just waiting for me to say it
Roger: And what does she think of me?
Jane: She thinks I’m waiting for you to say it.
Roger: But instead you wrote me this poem tonight, didn’t you?
Jane: I knew we were going somewhere and I didn’t want it to be here.
Roger: Do you feel as relieved as I do?
Jane: All I can think about is having an affair. I see them everywhere.
Roger: You never cheated on me?
Jane: There was a kiss, I stopped it. And then I was mad at you. You didn’t appreciate it, even though you didn’t know about it.
Roger: A younger man?
Jane: No.
Roger, that’s always been real. And I won’t even ask about you. I just know for a fact that you did not fell in love.
Roger: So what was wrong again?
Jane: You don’t like me.
Roger: I did.
I really did.

Jane: Is it morning?
Roger: Yes.
I’m sorry I always say it but you are so beautiful.
Jane: Last night was beautiful.
Roger: It was, wasn’t it?
Jane: Where are you going?
Roger: Out the door and into the elevator I suppose.
Jane: What about me?
Roger: You can take your time, obviously. I figured I just checked into a hotel for a while. I don’t want to displace you.
Jane: What are you talking about?
Roger: I imagined all the screaming and fitting and lawyers… it’s just so beautiful. How we were able to be there together in the truth like you wanted.
Jane: Are you leaving me?
Roger: No, we’re leaving each other just like you said.
Jane: I didn’t say that.
Roger: You did. You said so many amazing things, you were speaking German.
Jane: I don’t know German.
Roger: You were quoting your father.
Jane: Must have been Yiddish. I was on drugs; I obviously didn’t mean any of it.
Roger: So your psychiatrist didn’t tell you you knew this was over but you were waiting for me to say it?
Jane: I did say that. 
Roger: It’s good that you did because we both knew it.
Jane: No. I don’t know.
…
It’s going to be very expensive.
Roger: I know.

in Mad Men, season 5, episode 6, “Far Away places”.

[...] e há bocado o comboio passou por onde nós passámos, e depois seguiu.

Pedro Mexia in Lei Seca, "Arte ingénua".

Mysterious men... they make promises they have no intention of keeping. They tell lies to get what they want. They may be more dangerous than they seem. Yes, our mothers told us we cannot trust the men we don't know. And those we do know? Well, we can't always trust them either.

in Desperate Housewives, season 6, episode 21, "A Little Night Music".

Picture & text by Duane Michaels, The Unfortunate Man.

 

 

 

A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.

 

text by Diane Arbus.

Picture by Barbara Nitke, Athena Starr in Piggies, 1983.