Enemies, A Love Story (1989)

Ron Silver: Herman

Photos 

Quotes 

• Yadwiga : What kind of books are they?

  Herman : Books on how to build bridges, how to lose weight, how to run the government. Books of songs, stories, plays, the life of Hitler.

  Yadwiga : They write books about such swine?

  Herman : They write about all kinds of swine.

• Herman : Will you two stop quarreling? If you two can't live together peacefully, how can there ever be peace on the Earth? The last two people on Earth, they would kill each other.

• Yadwiga : Why don't you sell books here? There are so many people.

  Herman : People come to Coney Island for popcorn, not books.

• Yadwiga : Oh, no, no. Herman, you cannot go with barefoot. I get your slippers. I polish them.

  Herman : Polish them? Who polishes slippers?

  Yadwiga : They were all dried up.

  Herman : Ay-yi-yi, Yadzia. This is America. Huh? You're not the family servant anymore.

• Herman : Maybe suffering is an attribute of God.

• Yadwiga : You're breaking God's commandment.

  Herman : There is no God, do you hear? And if there were, I would defy him.

• Tamara : What sort of person is your mistress?

  Herman : A little crazy, but tremendously interesting.

• Herman : I can't divorce Yadwiga.

  Masha : You can't? When the King of England wanted to marry the woman he loved, he gave up his throne and you can't get rid of a stupid peasant?

• Herman : I don't want to go home, Tamara.

  Tamara : What do you want to do? Stay here among the dead?

• Herman : The Talmud is such a great book. It doesn't explain what a man should do with two wives.

• Herman : Stop it. Stop that. Stop it. Stop it. You're swearing like a fishwife.

• Herman : Look, since Yadwiga knows, we can all be friends. Ja? No, it's good. This way I'll have fewer lies to tell.

• Masha : Have you come back to Tamara?

  Herman : No. But she's also an angel.

  Masha : Introduce her to the rabbi. Maybe the two angels will make a new God. We're both devils.

• Herman : What do you look like now? What are you, an angel?

  Tamara : Who knows what angels are?

• Herman : I bought a bulb.

• Herman : You swore to me. You swore to me on a holy oath.

  Masha : I swore falsely.

• Herman : Oh, Masha. Oh, Masha, Masha. You know, Tamara's right. I'm a lost man. I can't decide. I can't decide between women. I can't decide on anything. I - Masha. Masha.

• Tamara : If you go with her, you're digging your own grave.

  Herman : Maybe I would be better off dead. But I don't have the guts to kill myself.

• Masha : Herman, you're afraid.

  Herman : Yeah, I'm afraid. Yeah. I'm afraid of God.

• Herman : Maybe your mother's better off. She doesn't have to make any more decisions. That's the one advantage to being dead.

• Herman : I wish I had the wife.

  Rabbi Lembeck : If you want one, you could have one. I picked out a fine woman for you. You wouldn't even meet her. What are you afraid of? You wait long enough, you'll marry a shiksa. The subject for my next speech... "Mixed marriages: The plague of the Jews."

• Rabbi Lembeck : Look, I wanted us to be friends. But there's something about you that makes it very difficult. I could help you a great deal, but you close up like a clam.

  Herman : Uh, maybe. Maybe I am no longer a part of this world.

  Rabbi Lembeck : Clichés. Empty words. I know hundreds of concentration camp survivors, some of them practically on the way to the oven, but they're doing fine. They drive cars, they do business and they have telephones.

  Herman : Maybe that's my problem. I was hiding in a barn.

• Masha : If God could allow the Jews of Europe to be killed, what reason is there to believe he would prevent the extermination of Jews in America? God doesn't care. Right, Herman?

  Herman : Who knows?

• Herman : I will not go to synagogue once a year like these assimilated hypocrites who call themselves Jews!