Quick Quote: Maria Headley’s Year of Yes

To anyone who’s asked what it’s like to have gone on fifty first dates, I have to say Maria Headley said it quite well at the end of her memoir, The Year of Yes:

“The Playwright slept, and I curled against him, listening to the sounds of the city: a helicopter passing overhead, taxis honking, dogs barking, and people calling good night. I listened to the bootleg music vendors touting their boomboxed wares, to the subway far beneath us rattling our foundations, to room service rolling down the hallway. I listened to Pierre pushing his vacuum, and the Handyman pushing my buzzer. I listened to the Boxer telling the story of our failure, and the Princelings telling the story of their success. I listened to Baler peddling away, unbitten, and Jarzhe calling down the elevator shaft, unblown. I listened to the Prom Queen’s crinolines rustling, and Marie Antoinette’s bellowing. I listened to Louie and his old man chorus singing ‘chupa, chupa’ as though it were a love song. I listened to Wonderwoman telling me se was going to kiss me, and the Actress laughing and ordering Chinese. I listened to the Rockstar singing his revisionist song, and the Designer crunching his radish. I listened to the flutter of the Mime’s fingers flashing through the air, and the whoosh of the Conductor’s breath as he blew out our candle. I listened to the Actor telling me that sometimes his life was amazing, to Ira singing “O Holy Night” in a British accent, and to Dogboy breathing out from underwater. I listened to every man I’d ever met, calling out like a chorus of ghosts, and I knew they’d be with me for the rest of my life.” 

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