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Maria Wyeth
BZ is a producer for Carter’s films and Maria’s only genuine friend. He is gay but trapped in a loveless marriage with Helene because his mother, Carlotta, pays the couple to stay together to keep up appearances. Despite being married, BZ has frequent affairs with men. At the core of BZ and Maria’s friendship is their shared disillusionment with Hollywood and their friends, and with life more broadly. BZ and Maria ultimately arrive at the same conclusion that life is meaningless, and they lose the desire to pretend otherwise. BZ initially plays along with what he considers to be the “game” of life: he presents to the world a superficial appearance of success, maintains an active social life, and encourages others to do the same. BZ repeatedly scolds Maria—though not unselfconsciously—for not having a sense of humor about her problems. For example, when Maria wallows in self-pity over her failed marriage, BZ encourages her to go to parties and lose herself in meaningless social and romantic encounters. Still, there is a self-awareness to BZ’s cynical embrace of superficiality. Though BZ initially participates in that “game,” perhaps because he sees no alternative, he eventually grows tired of the vapidness of his relationships, the emptiness of wealth, and the pointlessness of success. His disillusionment overpowers him, and he chooses to exit the “game” altogether, ending his life by overdosing on pills while visiting Maria in her motel room. BZ’s suicide is his way of taking a stand against superficiality and affirms his conviction in life’s meaninglessness; his death is a statement that positions death as preferrable to living disingenuously and without meaning. Since Maria doesn’t actively intervene to stop his suicide, Helene blames BZ’s death on Maria’s “carelessness” and “selfishness.”
BZ Quotes in Play It As It Lays
The Play It As It Lays quotes below are all either spoken by BZ or refer to BZ. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Maria Quotes
What makes Iago evil? some people ask. I never ask.
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Chapter 4 Quotes
“He said, ‘What I like about your wife, Carter, is she’s not a cunt.’”
Maria said nothing.
“That’s very funny, Maria, Kulik saying that to Carter, you lost your sense of humor?”
“I’ve already heard it.”
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Chapter 8 Quotes
“You haven’t asked me how it went after we left Anita’s,” BZ said.
“How did it go,” Maria said without interest.
“Everybody got what he came for.”
“Don’t you ever get tired of doing favors for people?”
There was a long silence. “You don’t know how tired,” BZ said.
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Chapter 10 Quotes
The way he looked was the problem. He looked exactly the same. He looked untouched, and she did not.
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Chapter 19 Quotes
She could remember it all but none of it seemed to come to anything. She had a sense the dream had ended and she had slept on.
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Chapter 26 Quotes
“I am just very very very tired of listening to you all.”
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Chapter 34 Quotes
In the whole world there was not so much sedation as there was instantaneous peril.
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Chapter 37 Quotes
“You look like hell, Maria this isn’t any excuse for you to fall apart, I mean a divorce. I’ve done it twice.”
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Chapter 72 Quotes
“It does make a difference to me.”
“No,” BZ said. “It doesn’t.”
Maria stared out the window into the dry wash behind the motel.
“You know it doesn’t. If you thought things like that mattered you’d be gone already. You’re not going anywhere.”
“Why don’t you get me a drink,” Maria said finally.
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Chapter 74 Quotes
Always when I play back. My father’s voice it is with a professional rasp, it goes as it lays, don’t do it the hard way. My father advised me that life itself was a crap game.
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Chapter 76 Quotes
If Carter and Helene want to think it happened because I was insane, I say let them. They have to lay it off on someone. Carter and Helene still believe in cause-effect. Carter and Helene also believe that people are either sane or insane.
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Chapter 82 Quotes
Carter and Helene still ask questions. I used to ask questions, and I got the answer: nothing. The answer is “nothing.” Now that I have the answer, my plans for the future are these: (1) get Kate, (2) live with Kate alone, (3) do some canning. Damson plums, apricot preserves. Sweet India relish and pickled peaches. Apple chutney. Summer squash succotash. There might even be a ready market for such canning: you will note that after everything I remain Harry and Francine Wyeth’s daughter and Benny Austin’s godchild. For all I know they knew the answer too, and pretended they didn’t. You call it as you see it, and stay in the action. BZ thought otherwise. If Carter and Helene aren’t careful they’ll get the answer too.
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Chapter 83 Quotes
She took his hand and held it. “Why are you here.”
“Because you and I, we know something. Because we’ve been out there where nothing is. Because I wanted—you know why.”
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Chapter 84 Quotes
I know what “nothing” means, and I keep on playing.
Why, BZ would say.
Why not, I say.
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Get the entire Play It As It Lays LitChart as a printable PDF.
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BZ Character Timeline in Play It As It Lays
The timeline below shows where the character BZ appears in Play It As It Lays. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Helene
...could spot Maria sunbathing in a bikini—the same one she wore “the summer she killed BZ.” Helene scornfully observes how Maria, like all selfish women, never gains any weight. Though Helene...
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Carter
...out to breakfast since April. This makes the other dinner guests (with the exception of BZ) feel uncomfortable and turn away.
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...father wants to talk to you.” Carter would replay these scenes in his mind after BZ’s death but could never find a “pattern.”
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Chapter 1
...nights, Maria would have panicked dreams about Les Goodwin in New York, or Carter and BZ and Helene in the desert together, but she’d never have such thoughts while she was...
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Chapter 2
One night, when Maria and Carter went to BZ and Helene’s, BZ started playing the film on a projector. Maria immediately became ill and...
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Chapter 4
...and bracelets before “kissing the pretty children goodnight.” Maria sits on a chaise and watches BZ throw ice cubes from his drink into the pool. They trade bits of Hollywood gossip....
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BZ tells Maria to drop it and let Carter finish his film. He says that Carter...
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BZ hears music coming from the Kuliks’ house and asks Maria if she’s going to their...
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Later in the week, Maria reads in the paper that BZ had attended the Kuliks’ party with Tommy Loew and an actress, which annoys Maria, though...
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Chapter 6
...filming location in Las Vegas. She imagines him in the motel, having a drink with BZ and Helene. She imagines calling Carter to say she’s in Baker, and Carter telling her...
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Chapter 7
It’s afternoon. Maria awakens to a phone call from BZ, who is at the beach, since a fire shut down production for a week. BZ...
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...party. A rock band plays in a pink tent outside, where Maria stands next to BZ. Larry Kulik absentmindedly asks Maria about Carter while he ogles a young girl in a...
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Maria and BZ sit at a table on the terrace for dinner, where two French filmmakers and a...
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...the table and invites Maria to come over and use his sauna. Later that night, BZ informs Maria that he’s bringing the French director, Larry Kulik, and the halter dress girl...
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Chapter 8
Later on, BZ tells Maria about his successful evening after leaving Anita’s party, and that “everybody got what...
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Chapter 10
...the kitchen, and she thinks about all the people she “trie[s] not to hear at BZ and Helene’s.” Maria recalls the moody men BZ meets abroad, and Helene’s female friends, who...
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BZ’s friends are more difficult to ignore than Helene’s, though—especially the masseur. Maria had originally thought...
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Maria hears the masseur taunt BZ for having artificial lemon juice in his refrigerator. Helene wryly jokes about all BZ’s friends...
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...Carter is gone, Maria sits up and takes in the scene around her: she sees BZ and the masseur, “their bodies gleaming, unlined,” and Helene looking down at Audrey and Jerry...
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Chapter 11
Later, when they’re in the car heading home from BZ’s, Carter criticizes Maria for asking Helene how much BZ’s mother, Carlotta, pays them to stay...
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Chapter 15
Maria is at BZ and Helene’s house. BZ’s mother, Carlotta, is there, too, playing solitaire and complaining about her...
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Chapter 28
...there. Maria declines, and Carter accuses her of wanting to be miserable. Maria says that BZ’s mother isn’t her mother.
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Chapter 37
...to gossip. She shows Maria the new ring Carlotta gave her for hanging out with BZ on set in the desert and gushes about the wild times everyone is having there....
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Chapter 38
...next time Carter sees Maria, she tells him she’s been working and hanging out with BZ and Helene. Carter tells Maria not to “get into that.”
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Chapter 39
Maria remembers when she first met BZ. It was the summer Carter was cutting Angel Beach, and he brought Maria along to...
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When the reel ended, Carter told BZ the film was “a commercial piece.” BZ shrugged and changed out the reel, Maria felt...
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Chapter 40
Back in the present, BZ tells Maria that she, him, Helene, and maybe Larry Kulik should go to Mexico City...
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Chapter 41
...is no seaside house, and the mussels on the shore are toxic. Maria fears that BZ and Larry Kulik and the rest of that crowd are the only ones who really...
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Chapter 53
...“beautiful,” but Carter doesn’t respond to her peace offering. Instead, he tells her to call BZ if she needs to reach him. Over the next few weeks, Maria scans Daily Variety...
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...Helene tells her that Carter is spending another week in Paris, which she learned through BZ, who talked with “them” on the phone. Helene begins to relay something that “she said,”...
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Chapter 62
...Maria’s house without knocking and asks about Maria’s “baroque morning-after,” which she heard about through BZ, who told her that Freddy called Carter about the debacle. Helene tests the color of...
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...of the employment agency on Beverly, that she looked years younger in it, and that BZ thinks Maria should go to the beach for a few weeks.
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...can drive herself. The next thing Maria knows, she’s crying, Helene has her arm, and BZ is getting her coat. Maria lets Helene guide her outside. She gets sick in the...
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...wakes up in Helene’s room. At first, she thinks she’s alone, but then she sees BZ and Helene on the chaise. She thinks of “the faintest ugly memory” she has “of...
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Chapter 63
...bruise on her cheek and puffy eyes, tells Maria to drop it. An image of BZ holding a belt and Helen laughing flashes through Maria’s head. Suddenly, Helene bursts into tears....
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When BZ sees Helene crying, he tells her to pull herself together or “get out of the...
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Chapter 64
...Instead, she stays in the room, takes some aspirin, and tries not to think about BZ and Helene.
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Chapter 66
Maria and Carter stand on the sun deck of Helene and BZ’s house. Carter comments on Maria being underweight and tells her he’s been trying to reach...
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...Helene lies on the couch, staring silently at the ceiling. In an overly cheerful voice, BZ tells her Maria is going to join them in the desert and sends Jeanelle into...
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Chapter 67
Carter tries to convince Maria to go to the desert with him, BZ, and Helene. When Maria declines the invitation, Carter tells her she’s welcome to stay behind...
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Chapter 71
...the music anyway. Susannah mocks Maria’s anxiety, suggesting that she’s afraid of getting arrested again. BZ tells Carter to turn down the music, but Carter ignores him. Maria stands up and...
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...if he likes sleeping with Susannah, and Carter says not particularly. When Maria comes to BZ’s room later that night, he tells her that Carter is with Harrison, the film’s lead...
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Chapter 72
BZ, who is in town for meetings at the studio, appears in the doorway. He tells...
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Once they’re alone, BZ tells Maria that it was Harrison who beat up Susannah, and that Carter had been...
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Chapter 75
Maria sits in the motel. BZ arrives and offers to “entertain” her, but Maria says she doesn’t feel like talking to...
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Chapter 76
...states that Carter and Helene can tell themselves that it was Maria’s craziness that caused BZ’s death, if that’s what makes them feel better. Maria regards Carter and Helene as people...
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Chapter 79
...left that afternoon, and that filming is nearly complete. Helene says that Susannah was excellent. BZ and Maria say nothing. Helene gushes about how well Carter and Helene work together.
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Chapter 81
Helene compliments Susannah Wood on her great performance that day. BZ agrees. Susannah and Helene discuss their plans to go to Vegas and see Sylvie Roth,...
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Chapter 82
...decides that “you call it as you see it, and stay in the action,” though “BZ thought otherwise.”
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Chapter 83
BZ is surprised when Maria opens the door, since he assumed she’d be in Las Vegas...
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BZ lies on the bed next to Maria and takes her hand. They listen to a...
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...the light, Helene is screaming, and her thoughts about what will happen next. She squeezes BZ’s hand.
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Chapter 84
...Helene, or maybe you,” which is “what ‘nothing’ means.” Despite this, she “keep[s] on playing.” BZ would’ve asked Maria “why,” to which she now replies, “why not.”
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