90 quotes
If we have not found heaven within, it is a certainty we will not find it without.
The truly great writer does not want to write: he wants the world to be a place in which he can live the life of the imagination.
Henry Miller on Writing (1964)
We do not talk—we bludgeon one another with facts and theories gleaned from cursory readings of newspapers, magazines and digests.
The Air-Conditioned Nightmare (1945)
My hunger and curiosity drive me forward in all directions at once.
The Rosy Crucifixion II: Plexus (1953)
The man who looks for security, even in the mind, is like a man who would chop off his limbs in order to have artificial ones which will give him no pain or trouble.
The Rosy Crucifixion I: Sexus (1949)
Whoever uses the spirit that is in him creatively is an artist. To make living itself an art, that is the goal.
Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch (1957)
Until it is kindled by a spirit as flamingly alive as the one which gave it birth a book is dead to us. Words divested of their magic are but dead hieroglyphs.
The study of crime begins with the knowledge of oneself. All that you despise, all that you loathe, all that you reject, all that you condemn and seek to convert by punishment springs from you.
He saw the humorous aspect of everything, which is the real test of the tragic sense.
The Colossus of Maroussi (1941)
In this age, which believes that there is a short-cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way, in the long run, is the easiest.
The man who doesn't respond to music, the man without music in his soul is not to be trusted. A man like that is cold and empty, empty to the core.
Reflections (1981)
A guy who's always interested in the condition of the world, and changing it, either has no problems of his own, or refuses to face them... not wanting to face things of his own nature.
Reds (1981)
The battle is endless. It had no beginning, nor will it know an end. We who babble and froth at the mouth have been at it since eternity.
Henry Miller on Writing (1964)
When a situation gets so bad that no solution seems possible there is left only murder or suicide. Or both. These failing, one becomes a buffoon.
The Rosy Crucifixion III: Nexus (1960)
This is not a book. This is libel, slander, defamation of character. This is not a book, in the ordinary sense of the word. No, this is a prolonged insult, a gob of spit in the face of Art, a kick in the pants to God, Man, Destiny, Time, Love, Beauty... what you will.
Tropic of Cancer (1934)
I blush to think of our origins—our hands are steeped in blood and crime. And there is no letup to the slaughter and pillage.
Henry Miller on Writing (1964)
Whatever I do is done out of sheer joy: I drop my fruits like a ripe tree. What the general reader or the critic makes of it is not my concern.
The Wisdom of the Heart (1941)
Life is constantly providing us with new funds, new resources, even when we are reduced to immobility. In life's ledger there is no such thing as frozen assets.
Quiet Days in Clichy (1956)
The tragedy of it is that nobody sees the look of desperation on my face. Thousands and thousands of us, and we're passing one another without a look of recognition.
Obscenity is a cleansing process, whereas pornography only adds to the murk.
Interview in London (1961)