Henry Martin > Quotes

“Silence—people are afraid of it—they feel the need to make small talk, anything, just to break the stillness. I don’t feel any such need. To me, silence brings about peace and certitude.”
― Henry Martin, Escaping Barcelona

“Perhaps, some day, humanity can start afresh, a new world, a tabula rasa, a world with a mind without prior experiences. No memories and no pain. A day when the ones with abundance do not look down at the poor and the needy, a day when we learn to care for the victims, the fallen souls of civilization and advancement, a day when the world will be pure. When all of humanity becomes a clean sheet of parchment, without knowledge and prejudice, simple, hungry for knowing, tasting, and feeling; hungry for life and ready to absorb the ink of experience.”
― Henry Martin, Escaping Barcelona

“Do we arouse our curiosity or does our
curiosity arouse us?”
― Henry Martin, Coffee, Cigarettes, and Murderous Thoughts

“Time plays no role in the life of one man—the subtle consciousness of it floating past me is more than enough. Years, months, days, hours, minutes, seconds—what does it matter? Floating by, it rubs against my skin, face, and hair—wearing me down, yet polishing me all the while. Time is like fine grains of sand in a desert storm. At first, you don’t pay any attention to it, but the more it hits you in the face, the more aware of it you become, the more annoying it gets until, one day, you find yourself suffocating. The weight of it eventually bends your spine, until you are crawling on your hands and knees, unable to stand straight. Then comes the time to crawl back into the womb, crawl inside and wait for rebirth.”
― Henry Martin, Eluding Reality

“I would like to believe and give in to my naiveté, I would like to embrace the fact that I am back in the place where the long fingers of civilization cannot reach me and rip my heart out. At this moment, I would like to embrace myself. I would like to be unconcerned with the rest of the world and take pleasure in knowing that I have found my home. All of my life, all of my adult life, which began with the first notion of understanding, I have been searching for this sensation. You, cruel world, have tried to bring me down, tried to crush me with your code of conduct, your ethics, and your preconceived limits on liberty. You have raped me and robbed me of happiness; you have stolen my dreams and my dignity, leaving me to rot with the rest of you. Today, I know I have escaped your poisoned web; I know your rules do not apply to me, for after all you have done to crush me, I am still standing proudly above the set of your sick play. I am in love—a feeling you no longer thought I was capable of. I am in love—living, breathing, dreaming again—triumphant over your sick schemes.”
― Henry Martin, Eluding Reality

“The train station—busy, swarming with people, luggage, porters, taxi drivers and limousine chauffeurs—a giant honeycomb, with worker bees flying in and out, carrying the trash, which covers the entire floor, in and out of the building. Only the honey has been consumed by the selected few, and nothing but the mucus remains. The line—a monstrous larva—the line stretches from the information window and extends almost out of the door. A human worm—hundreds of legs and hands, twisting and breathing disease. What was I thinking? This is just a city like any other, a city with its inhabitants, always busy, from the morning until the nighttime, always itching for a fight, always ready to chew me up and spit me out. A stripped and ragged bone, tossed aside when I can no longer feed its hungry belly. The belly of a beast—a human beast—merciless, yet placatory on the surface. I light a cigarette, spit on the floor, and walk towards the daylight.”
― Henry Martin, Eluding Reality

“An unexpected sight opens in front of my eyes, a sight I cannot ignore. Instead of the calm waters in front of the fortress, the rear side offers a view of a different sea—the sea of small, dark streets and alleys—like an intricate puzzle. The breathtaking scenery visible from the other side had been replaced by the panorama of poverty–stricken streets, crumbling house walls, and dilapidated facades that struggle to hide the building materials beneath them. It reminds me of the ghettos in Barcelona, the ghettos I came to know far too well. I take a deep breath and look for a sign of life—a life not affected by its surroundings. Nothing. Down, between the rows of dirty dwellings stretches a clothesline. Heavy with the freshly washed laundry it droops down, droplets of water trickling onto the soiled pavement from its burden. Around the corner, a group of filthy children plays with a semi–deflated soccer ball—it makes a funny sound as it bounces off the wall—plunk, plunk. A man sitting on a staircase puts out a cigarette; he coughs, spits phlegm on the sidewalk, and lights a new one. A mucky dog wanders to a house, lifts his leg, and pisses on it. His urine flows down the wall and onto the street, forming a puddle on the pavement. The children run about, stepping in the piss, unconcerned. An old woman watches from the window, her large breasts hanging over the windowsill for the world to see. Une vie ordinaire, a mundane life...life in its purest. These streets bring me back to all the places I had escaped when I sneaked onto the ferry. The same feeling of conformity within despair, conformity with their destiny, prearranged long before these people were born. Nothing ever changes, nothing ever disturbs the gloomy corners of the underworld. Tucked away from the bright lights, tucked away from the shiny pavers on the promenade, hidden from the eyes of the tourists, the misery thrives. I cannot help but think of myself—only a few weeks ago my life was not much different from the view in front of my eyes. Yet, there is a certain peace soaring from these streets, a peace embedded in each cobblestone, in each rotten wall. The peace of men, unconcerned with the rest of the world, disturbed neither by global issues, nor by the stock market prices. A peace so ancient that it can only be found in the few corners of the world that remain unchanged for centuries. This is one of the places. I miss the intricacy of the street, I miss the feeling of excitement and danger melted together into one exceptional, nonconforming emotion. There is the real—the street; and then there is all the other—the removed. I am now on the other side of reality, unable to reach out with my hand and touch the pure life. I miss the street.”
― Henry Martin, Finding Eivissa

“My father was a stand–up man who, unfortunately, did not have anything to stand up for. An eternal conflict burned in his heart, a conflict with himself and with the rest of the world. A man who could not decide between his love for his mother or his love for his wife, he encrusted himself with a shell of arrogance and unfounded superiority. He took to the open road, and when he finally settled down, none of his problems had gone away; they were all waiting for him to come home—my mother, her parents, and me—all baggage.”
― Henry Martin, Mad Days of Me: Eluding Reality

“When I wake, the sun is just climbing above the clouds, beginning its daily journey. A never-ending journey, one that will continue long after humanity is extinct. For ages it has shone its light over wars and miseries, piercing through the deepest darkness, and yet never able to penetrate the human heart and fill it with its light.”
― Henry Martin, Escaping Barcelona

“One foot in Austria, the other in Italy, it’s funny how man defines borders. An imaginary line is all that is needed to split continents apart, to separate men and cultures, to spark wars and injustices—a line in pencil, drawn on some agreement or a peace treaty ages ago.”
― Henry Martin, Mad Days of Me, the complete trilogy

“Without children, there is no careless play; the laughter has died. Only the gruesome reality of the day is left, an unchanging reality knowing no miracles, no breaks, no dreams.”
― Henry Martin, Eluding Reality

“The people walking by seem so unreal, so removed from the world that any resemblance between them and me seems strictly genealogical. Humanoids with no concern, a self–absorbed army of cerebral derelicts, preoccupied by their grandiose ideas, consumed by their wealth, their only quest in life is for the removal of people like me from their perfect world.”
― Henry Martin, Mad Days of Me, the complete trilogy

“Nothing is more damaging than a closed mind; nothing is more damaging than an unwillingness to learn.”
― Henry Martin, Mad Days of Me, the complete trilogy

“The fortune of a man is one of the greatest mysteries. How so little can change so much in one’s life; we are separated only by a few feet, yet our worlds have nothing in common, apart from being in the same location at the same time.”
― Henry Martin, Mad Days of Me, the complete trilogy

“Feeding those in need is probably the nicest thing the church can ever do. I consider it a small act of contrition for all their sins:”
― Henry Martin, Mad Days of Me, the complete trilogy

“A good day is a day like today—I am alive, I am breathing. The complexity of past affairs no longer preoccupies my mind. The deepest simplicity in life, the simple fact of breathing, gives me all the pleasure I require to sustain living.”
― Henry Martin, Mad Days of Me, the complete trilogy

“The keyless, security lock clearly marks the end of free range, beyond which lies the forbidden path to the world of the fortunate.”
― Henry Martin, Mad Days of Me, the complete trilogy

“The female body is made to be appreciated, to be adored—not to be hidden under an impenetrable shroud of man-made fabric, not to be deprived of Mother Nature’s caresses.”
― Henry Martin, Mad Days of Me, the complete trilogy

“I work on the wine. It tastes somewhat tart, but that could be because I normally drink white. However, today is a different kind of day. Sitting in the most pleasurable of settings, I may as well drink red and piss white; at least I’ll know that some of this land remained inside me. I look to my right, my eyes unfocused, absorbing the city as a whole. Show me your magic; I am ready. With a cigarette between my lips, I whisper my thoughts, my soul open to the maximum. Then I see it...clearly, without being able to visualize it in my eyes...my soul acting as the receiver—no past, no future, no nightmares, no struggle, a world without isms and schisms, a moment of pure joy, a split second when everything makes sense, a flash of life when one is ready to die. From Antibes emanates an ambience so wonderful that I wish to drink from Lethe and know no more than the present. If only for a brief moment, I desire this one luxury. While I press my lips together, ready to receive the kiss of Thanatos, I wonder if I can afford it. I wait for an answer...waiting, waiting, but it doesn’t arrive. The time is not yet mine; it seems fortune will pass me by today.”
― Henry Martin, Eluding Reality

“What a wonderful feeling to know that even though the world is so fucked up, there remains something pure and innocent. Oh, how splendid it is that man has no control over the weather.”
― Henry Martin, Mad Days of Me, the complete trilogy

“We lie on the blanket, our bare bodies basking in the sun like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Only our apples were bitten a long time ago, and we ate them too.”
― Henry Martin, Finding Eivissa

“The sexual urge overpowers me; I lean towards her, our lips meet and we kiss. The smell of her perfume, the spice of her skin—intoxicating—the lights and the smoke fall upon me, and I just want to have her right there and then on the barstool. Out of nowhere, I hear Samir behind me: “It’s a man, get the fuck away from him!” “What?” I exclaim. I can’t believe this, so I reach between her legs and feel a hard dick. Shit.”
― Henry Martin, Mad Days of Me, the complete trilogy

“In their eyes, I am scum. In their eyes I am something to be pushed into a corner with a long stick. To them, I don’t deserve human contact. Their upbringing, their summer-school program, their parents’ fat wallets—the image of me doesn’t fit well into their world.”
― Henry Martin, Mad Days of Me, the complete trilogy

“Pride fucks with everyone. You can be living in hell, hungry and beaten, trying to bring food to your family at any cost, but when you go out into the world, you can never say to your neighbor: “Please help me. I am hungry, and I can’t take it anymore!” No. You pretend as if everything is just swell.”
― Henry Martin, Mad Days of Me, the complete trilogy

“Austria, once again you remind me why I haven’t missed you. The streets are clean, the buildings well kept, the people dressed in stylish clothes, and yet, the city appears lifeless, passionless—leprous.”
― Henry Martin, Mad Days of Me, the complete trilogy

“In an era where Existence is incontestable, Truth is subjective, and Reality is perceived, fiction must mediate between the three.”
― Henry Martin

“and the homeless,”
― Henry Martin, Mad Days of Me, the complete trilogy

“the sun is just climbing above the clouds, beginning its daily journey. A never-ending journey, one that will continue long after humanity is extinct. For ages it has shone its light over wars and miseries, piercing through the deepest darkness, and yet never able to penetrate the human heart and fill it with its light.”
― Henry Martin, Mad Days of Me, the complete trilogy

“One would think that Salzburg would smell like music, but Mozart is long dead, and the notes and chords have rotted away. All that remains is the stench of indifference and blissful ignorance.”
― Henry Martin, Mad Days of Me, the complete trilogy

“Be human, be open-minded, and be willing to learn.”
― Henry Martin, Mad Days of Me, the complete trilogy