Katie

“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.”
― Glenn Haybittle, The War in Venice

“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.”
― Glenn Haybittle, Scorched Earth

“Bereavement is sometimes like wading across a succession of snowfields with no landmark in sight. You are a lone small figure in a vast barren landscape. Other times it’s like a Ferris wheel ride. Like being strapped into a swinging spinning bucket. The dizzying dislocation from familiar grounded reality.”
― Glenn Haybittle, Byron and Shelley

“My mother later blamed the Cold War and the threat of nuclear extinction for all her shortcomings as a mother. She said the state of fear she lived in during that period froze over all other feelings. That was the explanation for her aversion to touching me or even being emotionally present when I needed reassurance. I didn't accept it as a valid excuse at the time, but now I'm older I understand better the crippling consequences of mental health issues.”
― Glenn Haybittle, Scorched Earth