All my good reading, you might say, was done in the toilet. There are passages in Ulysses which can be read only in the toilet - if one wants to extract the full flavor of their content. Henry Miller More Quotes by Henry Miller More Quotes From Henry Miller On the meridian of time, there is no injustice: there is only the poetry of motion creating the illusion of truth and drama. Henry Miller creatingtimedrama Until we accept the fact that life itself is founded in mystery, we shall learn nothing. Henry Miller humilityliteraturelife Back of every creation, supporting it like an arch, is faith. Enthusiasm is nothing: it comes and goes. But if one believes, then miracles occur. Henry Miller miraclefaithbelieve There's nothing wrong with the world. What's wrong is our way of looking at it. Henry Miller perspectivewayworld Do anything, but let it produce joy. Do anything, but let it yield ecstasy. Henry Miller yieldproducejoy Giving and receiving are at bottom one thing, dependent on whether one lives open or closed. Living openly one becomes a medium, a transmitter; living thus, as a river, one experiences life to the full, flows along with the current of life, and dies in order to live again as an ocean. Henry Miller oceanriversorder The ordinary man is involved in action, the hero acts. An immense difference. Henry Miller differencesheromen The real enemy can always be met and conquered, or won over. Real antagonism is based on love, a love which has not recognized itself. Henry Miller realloveenemy When I reflect that the task which the artist implicitly sets himself is to overthrow existing values, to make of the chaos about him an order which is his own, to sow strife and ferment so that by the emotional release those who are dead may be restored to life, then it is that I run with joy to the great and imperfect ones, their confusion nourishes me, their stuttering is like divine music to my ears. Henry Miller emotionalrunningart I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive. Henry Miller moneydeterminationhappiness Even if one’s whole life were a mistake, there is always time to change. Henry Miller whole-lifewholemistake I see America spreading disaster. I see America as a black curse upon the world. I see a long night settling in and that mushroom which has poisoned the world withering at the roots. Henry Miller mushroomsrootsnight Begin this moment, wherever you find yourself, and take no thought of the morrow. Look not to Russia, China, India, not to Washington, not to the adjoining county, city or state, but to your immediate surroundings. Forget Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed and all the others. Do your part to the best of your ability, regardless of the consequences. Above all, do not wait for the next man to follow suit. Henry Miller russiamenjesus We're creators by permission, by grace as it were. No one creates alone, of and by himself. An artist is an instrument that registers something already existent, something which belongs to the whole world, and which, if he is an artist, he is compelled to give back to the world. Henry Miller artistgracegiving I read to be taken out of myself, to become ecstatic. Henry Miller ecstatictaken Any genuine philosophy leads to action and from action back again to wonder, to the enduring fact of mystery. Henry Miller actionphilosophyfacts No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance. Henry Miller wisdomleadershipwise 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 them is not my concern. Henry Miller donetreejoy I didn't dare to think of anything then except the "facts." To get beneath the facts I would have had to be an artist, and one doesn't become an artist overnight. First you have to be crushed, to have your conflicting points of view annihilated. You have to be wiped out as a human being in order to be born again an individual. You have to be carbonized and mineralized in order to work upwards from the last common denominator of the self. You have to get beyond pity in order to feel from the very roots of your being. Henry Miller artistselfthinking America is no place for an artist: to be an artist is to be a moral leper, an economic misfit, a social liability. A corn-fed hog enjoys a better life than a creative writer, painter or musician. To be a rabbit is better still. Henry Miller artistwritingamerica
