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81 " And intimacy is what I most love in life. Good painting has that quality. Makes you feel intimate with it. "
― Glenn Haybittle , The Way Back to Florence
82 " She is like the rain that loosens the scent from things. "
83 " Memories of shame have greater reserves of power to haunt than even memories of love. "
― Glenn Haybittle , In the Warsaw Ghetto
84 " They are flying now above a dreamscape of rollercoasting white cloud crests. It feels sometimes like a premonition of death. Being so high up in the sky where no other living creature can survive. Where there is nothing solid. Just shifting transparency, luminous endless space. "
85 " The ditch we were digging cut through the middle of an olive grove. Our supervisor gave us instructions to be careful not to damage the roots of the trees. The minute he was out of sight, overseeing work at another ditch, Carlo would take his pickaxe or shovel and hack at the uncovered roots with a satisfied malice and then mask the destruction he had achieved with a new layer of earth. At the time I thought it madness that someone could believe he was thwarting the fascist war effort by mutilating the roots of a few olive trees. But the world still seemed relatively sane to me in those days before the Nazis arrived in Florence. "
86 " She turns to look down at the tiered vineyards and, beyond, the vignette of Florence in the valley as if scooped up on a spoon. Its domes and spires and rooftops appearing to float on a tide of unearthly mist as inviolate and inaccessible as a private longing. "
87 " She remembers once handing her father a flower she picked and how in the act of giving she experienced herself as that flower - the sticky stalk resin, the hard green shoots, the sheltered stamens and raw red anthers. She needed him to understand her no less than she needed to remain a mystery. "
― Glenn Haybittle , The Memory Tree
88 " Perhaps it is both the tragedy of life and the blessing of life that most moments only happen once. "
89 " You know when you’re on a train at a station and there’s another train opposite and the other train starts moving and there’s that utterly convincing illusion that it’s your train that is moving and you feel a bit disorientated when you realise you’re still standing still. That’s what my life has been like since Freddie left. "
90 " I thought of that lost book and all the memories it held and how it was just one of millions of objects in the world loaded with secret history which pass hands until eventually they excite nothing more than mild curiosity or, often, complete apathy. It was like all the sadness and loneliness of life resided in these objects. I realised the moment anything loses its context it becomes a husk. "
― Glenn Haybittle , The Tree House
91 " There’s something liberating about the absence of home comforts which appeals to the child in us. It’s perhaps the first time in our lives when we get a hint of how exciting it can be to be naked. "
92 " There are one or two places in the world that know our secrets. "
― Glenn Haybittle , The War in Venice
93 " I've always loved walking through cities at dawn. The sense it gives you of entering into a new existence with a clean slate. "
― Glenn Haybittle , Scorched Earth
94 " It's only when I'm sad that I feel truly wise. "
95 " If you're learning any craft my advice would always be to emulate and aspire to a master. Sure, you're placing an obstacle field in your path, but what is happiness after all if not the overcoming of obstacles? "
96 " I wanted to apologise, not only for not recognising her which had granted me an unwarranted advantage at her expense, but also for how much I had aged since our last meeting. As if this was a flaw in my character. As if I had now ruined her memories of me. No wonder we love art so much - the beauty that forever remains unaltered. "
97 " Since the advent of war many things have happened to him that he could not possibly have imagined. He wonders if this is one of the subliminal reasons men wage war. To increase the daily frequency of surprise and shock. The forerunners of revelation. "
― Glenn Haybittle
98 " The riverside palaces are reflected in the water on either side of the river as rippling golden wafers. There is a pink underglow on the marble façade of San Miniato on the hill. The mosaic of Christ reflecting the benediction of the sun’s dying rays over the city. "
99 " This part of Warsaw has always been an extension of home for her, part of her shape, a responsive intimate part of her identity. So much she was attached to, so much that lent her footholding weight is now obliterated. It’s as if one of the mirrors by which she recognises herself has ceased to reflect her. The teetering balancing act of unsupported walls makes her feel unsteady on her own legs. Buildings taken for granted are no longer standing. There are voids where previously history stood. Feathers like snowflakes rise up into the smoke infested air as if she is inside a macabre snow globe. "
100 " Outside, he stretches up his arms beneath the brightening sky. His breath and heartbeat like a gift newly restored to him. "