Scorched Earth Quotes

“Everyone tells lies to get what they want. First of all we tell lies to ourselves and then we tell them to everyone else. That's what the past becomes - a kind of flower bed in which you're uprooting and replanting all the time.”
― Glenn Haybittle, Scorched Earth

“Sadness, essentially, is the ghost of happiness.”
― Glenn Haybittle, Scorched Earth

“A mask can be expedient when it's a mask you know you're wearing and can take off at will, but masks which are worn habitually cannot be removed without tearing off some of your real face.”
― Glenn Haybittle, Scorched Earth

“Beauty is a private moment in the mind, which we then seek to communicate.”
― Glenn Haybittle, Scorched Earth

“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

“I learned in those days that it's the mind's apprehension of beauty which renews everything, which enables us to see the world for the first time again. Beauty is a private moment in the mind, which we then seek to communicate.”
― Glenn Haybittle, Scorched Earth

“It's only when I'm sad that I feel truly wise.”
― Glenn Haybittle, Scorched Earth

“Women, quite rightly, have a scorn for men who act only with hindsight.”
― Glenn Haybittle, Scorched Earth

“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

“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

“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

“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.”
― Glenn Haybittle, Scorched Earth

“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?”
― Glenn Haybittle, Scorched Earth

“I feel some nostalgia for the old red buses of the past that you could hop on and off at will. Nowadays the only way out of a bus is a door you can't open with your own hands. How smugly proud we are of our new-found freedoms in the West - always bragging about them and trying to export them further afield - and yet every year some sly little technological theft of our autonomy is surreptitiously introduced into everyday life. I mean, what better definition of prison is there than an enclosed space whose door you can't open with your own hands?”
― Glenn Haybittle, Scorched Earth

“But my truth is that, essentially, we're like flowers - we have an evolutionary imperative, an informed sense of what we have it in ourselves to become, which originates in the dark and slowly creates the conditions that enable us to fulfil our nature.”
― Glenn Haybittle, Scorched Earth

“Rome lifts you up but won't let you settle down - it turns you into a bird without a nest.”
― Glenn Haybittle, Scorched Earth

“Sex is the great equaliser in life. Whether you're rich or poor, smart or stupid, beautiful or ugly, the pleasure pitch of erogenous zones, the quality of orgasm is not affected. Sex gives everyone equal opportunity.”
― Glenn Haybittle, Scorched Earth

“I've always believed first impressions are paramount in life. That we have access to much we need to know about a person in the blink of an eye. That everything subsequently broadcasted is a confirmation of knowledge already fermenting in the distillery of the unconscious. Heightened curiosity discloses and absorbs a wealth of coded information.”
― Glenn Haybittle, Scorched Earth

“Fame, like being in love, can at times bring with it the conceited (and obnoxious) belief that you are a somebody person in a world of nobody people.”
― Glenn Haybittle, Scorched Earth

“Music makes you feel younger, more confident you can take on the world and the obstacles it throws at you.”
― Glenn Haybittle, Scorched Earth

“Males aren't trained to proof-read their naked bodies the way females are.”
― Glenn Haybittle, Scorched Earth

“Music can be the medium of sharing experience in a purified and heightened form; but it can also make being alone a stirring and highly privileged place to be.”
― Glenn Haybittle, Scorched Earth

“The Waves was my favourite book. It moved me so deeply that it became a part of my mind.”
― Glenn Haybittle, Scorched Earth

“The only online site I like is Goodreads. I write a review there of all the novels I read. About three a week! I really enjoy it. I think I've become quite good at it.”
― Glenn Haybittle, Scorched Earth

“Love is what you carry in your heart, not what you hold in your hands.”
― Glenn Haybittle, Scorched Earth