1
She is a wiry blanched creature with no beauty. Her expression reminds him of a crumpled letter — there is both sadness and anger in it.Glenn Haybittle
2
He likes to think of himself as someone who can give quick clever answers to awkward questions. It is an important part of his self-esteem.Glenn Haybittle
3
The act of creation, the impetus to undertake it, is always some kind of feeble attempt to understand one’s own creation, the nature of creation itself.Glenn Haybittle
4
The snow, the effect of concealment and secrecy it creates, makes him think of the brutality of the wartime legislation to forbid and violently extract secrets. It is as if the hushed white landscape is showing how sacrosanct are our secrets, how much of our vitality is bound up in them.Glenn Haybittle
5
Today she feels she is the master of her craft. Today she is free of the grinding tyranny of doubt. The voice that mocks her ambition. The voice that bites and slanders and causes her more heartache than any other voice. Today she is focused, she is exultant. Her every brushstroke like a wake of radiance. Today she can move the paint around the canvas at will. If only painting were like this every day. Without the sudden extinguishing of light, the collapsing of belief, the cursing and flailing, the knots and clenched fists in a world gone suddenly dark.Glenn Haybittle
6
Artists, like criminals, are dependent on a jury.Glenn Haybittle
7
Esme skips on ahead. Jumping from one foot to the other, as if she can see markings on the ground he can’t. She is constantly jumping and skipping and twirling with the lightness of falling snow, looking up at him bright with questions, tugging on his hand, dashing off with all the speed her body is capable of and then skipping on the spot up ahead as if consecrating it for his arrival. It is so easy to make her happy that it seems like cheating at times. .Glenn Haybittle
8
And who isn’t less innocent than they lead us to believe? That’s one of the fundamental truths about human nature.Glenn Haybittle