Home > Author > Glenn Haybittle
21 " And who isn’t less innocent than they lead us to believe? That’s one of the fundamental truths about human nature. "
― Glenn Haybittle , The Way Back to Florence
22 " The cabinets and shelves are a bright busy choreography of oils, shampoos, conditioners, scrubs, lotions, salts, unguents. Zinnia loves buying pots and bottles and tubes of alchemised essences that smell like yearning or intimacy on the skin. "
― Glenn Haybittle , The Memory Tree
23 " If the infinite is inside us it often takes the guise of terror. "
― Glenn Haybittle , The War in Venice
24 " Most of us carry around the extravagant hope that the world can at least catch a glimpse of what we consider to be our true face. We can't help harbouring the desire that past achievements and former incarnations still reveal some glimpse of themselves on our person. That people might be able to read the history of a face and not just its live bulletins. "
― Glenn Haybittle , Scorched Earth
25 " We all fashion ourselves to the false world in which we live and in so doing become false ourselves. I saw this all the time during the occupation. How people could convince themselves that locking up and deporting Jews, including children, was a rational consequence of events. How the same people who shrugged off news of executions and deportations were beside themselves with rage when someone tried to jump a queue. "
― Glenn Haybittle , The Tree House
26 " Our struggles to argue our truth into consequence against an opponent are when we are most naked. "
27 " Everyone who dies in Florence has a copy of Great Expectations. "
― Glenn Haybittle , The Atelier
28 " The panic attacks have been a part of Zinnia’s life for almost six months. They allow no pathway back to the innocent complacency with which she once made sense of the world around her. With every new attack more of her identity crumbles. Every day the panic rubs something else out that has been achieved with application, sometimes with inspiration. "
29 " The beginning of an attack I always experienced as a swell lurching up from unseen depths, similar to the physical sensation of standing waist-high in the sea when there are no waves but all of a sudden the great body of water heaves itself up as if the planet has shifted a fraction on its axis. That was the signal for me that the nature of reality was about to terrifyingly change. "
30 " He feels he has to accept their bond isn't as exalted as he believed. Just another ordinary relationship with niggling unspoken grudges, mistimed or inappropriate interventions, gross failures in code breaking, secret yearnings for escape, a growing litany of treasons and resentments. "
― Glenn Haybittle , In the Warsaw Ghetto
31 " Sentimentality, especially in the guise of idealism, not only breeds cynicism but also makes it the necessary foil sometimes. "
32 " There are no full stops in the human mind. There is no final draft. Everything that happens continues happening. It has an existence outside of time. "
33 " Florence is actually a very fateful city. Often one has a sense of Florence answering one back, if you know what I mean. "
34 " The sky is a virginal blue translucence as though bereft for a fleeting moment of the effects of both light and darkness. A crimson streak smoulders over the outline of the hills, a simmering bloodline. There is a solitary canoe on the water. A cold white sheen rises from the water. She holds her breath. As if to stop any more time from passing, to stop the future happening. The peacefulness of the morning is almost heartbreaking in its fragility. "
35 " It's astonishing how much of our resilience resides is our routines, even in our things. I sometimes think every person's chances of surviving this war will be largely how adaptable they are to change. "
36 " The choir and congregation are singing I Vow to Thee My Country. Never has he heard the hymn sung with such heartfelt pathos. It is as if everyone is trying to sing themselves into being. It is the war that makes everyone sing out their hearts like this. The hymn expresses some imperative deep down in the blood. Like running fingers over the edge of things in pitch darkness. "
37 " Personal relationships are paramount in life. At their best they can confirm the highest ideals we have about human life. Relationships are how we learn about ourselves. How we evolve, both as individuals and communities. How we learn about the world around us. Relationships are the most accessible source of inspiration. They can bring us to our knees; they can move us close to heaven. Personal relationships are our sacred text, our scripture. "
38 " Venice can wash through you all the memories you have never made. "
39 " She quickly learned that the sight of Venice at given moments can root you in your deepest longings. It can also make you realise your identity too is built on shifting water, consists of rising and falling tides, countless ephemeral reflections and refractions. Venice can wash through you the love you have never made, the battles you have never fought, the beauty you have never created. It can flood to the surface everything you have lost and everything you have never known. It can reveal you to yourself without your carnival masks. "
40 " Venice can wash through you the love you have never made, the battles you have never fought, the beauty you have never created. It can flood to the surface everything you have lost and everything you have never known. It can reveal you to yourself without your carnival masks. "