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Henry Miller Quotes - Page 16

All Quotes Acceptance Art Beauty Boredom Cancer Change Chaos Christ Consciousness Creation Creativity Crime Criticism Curiosity Death Destiny Dying Earth Eating Effort Ego Evil Falling In Love Fashion Fate Fear Feelings Funny Giving Giving Up Grace Gratitude Growth Happiness Hate Heart History Humanity Imagination Inspiration Inspirational Integrity Joy Life Literature Live Life Love Lying Music Nature Pain Passion Past Peace Perspective Philosophy Progress Purpose Reading Reality Running Silence Sin Singing Soul Spring Struggle Suffering Time Tragedy Travel Understanding Vision Waiting War Water Writing

I had to learn to think, feel, and see in a totally new fashion, in an uneducated way, in my own way, which is the hardest thing in the world. I had to throw myself into the current, knowing that I would probably sink.

I had to learn to think, feel, and see in a totally new fashion, in an uneducated way, in my own way, which is the hardest thing in the world. I had to throw myself into the current, knowing that I would probably sink.

Fashion, Thinking, Knowing

Henry Miller (1941). “The Wisdom of the Heart”, p.29, New Directions Publishing

After all, most writing is done away from the typewriter, away from the desk. I'd say it occurs in the quiet, silent moments, while you're walking or shaving or playing a game, or whatever, or even talking to someone you're not vitally interested in.

Writing, Typewriters, Talking

Henry Miller, Frank L. Kersnowski (1994). “Conversations with Henry Miller”, Univ Pr of Mississippi

All the lies and evasions by which man has nourished himself civilization, in a word is the fruits of the creative artist. It is the creative nature of man which has refused to let him lapse back into that unconscious unity with life which characterizes the animal world from which he made his escape.

Lying, Creativity, Men

Henry Miller (2016). “The Wisdom of the Heart”, p.8, New Directions Publishing

I am positively against all this crap which is carried on first in the name of this thing, then in the name of that. I believe only in what is active, immediate, and personal.

Believe, Names, Firsts

Henry Miller (1961). “The Cosmological Eye”, p.160, New Directions Publishing

I saw through to the last sign and symbol, but I could not read her face. I could see only the eyes shining through, huge, fleshy-like luminous beasts, as though I were swimming behind them in the electric effluvia of her incandescent vision.

Eye, Swimming, Shining

Henry Miller (1966). “Tropic of Capricorn”

Do not be duped by little duties. Do not be a chore man all your days.

Men, Littles, Duty

There are lone figures armed only with ideas, sometimes with just one idea, who blast away whole epochs in which we are enwrapped like mummies. Some are powerful enough to resurrect the dead. Some steal on us unawares and put a spell over us which it takes centuries to throw off. Some put a curse on us, for our st idity and inertia, and then it seems as if God himself were unable to lift it.

Powerful, Ideas, Vision

Henry Miller (1970). “The Air-conditioned Nightmare”, p.169, New Directions Publishing

And the books you write. They're not you. They're not me sitting here, this Henry Miller. They belong to someone else. It's terrible. You can never rest.

Book, Writing, Sitting

"Henry Miller: The Last Days" by Barbara Kraft, www.huffingtonpost.com. December 17, 2013.

Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.

Book, Writing, Thinking

Henry Miller (1964). “Henry Miller on Writing”, New Directions Publishing

I am living at the Villa Borghese. There is not a crumb of dirt anywhere, nor a chair misplaced. We are all alone here and we are dead.

Dirt, Villa, All Alone

Henry Miller, Norman Mailer (1976). “Genius and lust: a journey through the major writings of Henry Miller”, Grove Press

Words, sentences, ideas, no matter how subtle or ingenious, the maddest flights of poetry, the most profound dreams, the most hallucinating visions, are but crude hieroglyphs chiseled in pain and sorrow to commemorate an event which is untransmissible.

Dream, Pain, Writing

Henry Miller (1964). “Henry Miller on Writing”, New Directions Publishing

It was here in Big Sur that I first learned to say 'amen.'

Big Sur, Firsts, Bigs

Henry Miller (1957). “Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch”, p.32, New Directions Publishing

People used to envy me my inspiration. I hate inspiration. It takes you over completely. I could never wait until it passed and I got rid of it.

Hate, Inspiration, Envy

"Henry Miller: The Last Days" by Barbara Kraft, www.huffingtonpost.com. December 17, 2013.

The best stories I have heard were pointless, the best books those whose plot I can never remember, the best individuals those whom I never get anywhere with. Though it has been practised on me time and again I never cease to marvel how it happens that with certain individuals whom I know, within a few minutes after greeting them we are embarked on an endless voyage comparable in feeling and trajectory only to the deep middle dream which the practised dreamer slips into like a bone slips into its sockets

Dream, Book, Feelings

Henry Miller (1958). “The Colossus of Maroussi”, p.71, New Directions Publishing

There is something else to be said about this immediate, spontaneous way of working, and that is this: in such moments, one is playing at the game of creation.

Games, Way, Moments

At the bottom of every frozen heart there is a drop or two of love―just enough to feed the birds.

Heart, Two, Bird

Henry Miller (1977). “Tropic of Cancer”

I'd rather sit down and write a letter than call someone up. I hate the telephone.

Hate, Writing, Letters

It isn't the oceans which cut us off from the world - it's the American way of looking at things.

Ocean, Cutting, Sea

Henry Miller (1945). “The Air-Conditioned Nightmare”

New York has a trip-hammer vitality which drives you insane with restlessness if you have no inner stabilizer.

New York, Insane, Vitality

Henry Miller (2010). “The Colossus of Maroussi (Second Edition)”, p.159, New Directions Publishing

How different the new order would be if we could consult the veteran instead of the politician.

Order, Politics, Different

Henry Miller (1941). “The Wisdom of the Heart”, p.123, New Directions Publishing

The more I wrote, the more I became a human being. The writing may have seemed monstrous (to some) for it was a violation, but I became a more human individual because of it. I was getting the poison out of my system.

Writing, Poison, May

Henry Miller (1964). “Henry Miller on Writing”, New Directions Publishing

If you are well off and can afford to spend ten or twenty-five dollars a day to hire some patient soul to listen to your troubles you can be readjusted to the crazy scheme of things and spare yourself the humiliation of becoming a Christian Scientist. You can have your ego trimmed or removed, as you wish, just like a wart or bunion.

Christian, Crazy, War

I read to be taken out of myself, to become ecstatic.

Taken, Ecstatic

Henry Miller, Frank L. Kersnowski (1994). “Conversations with Henry Miller”, Univ Pr of Mississippi

Life is 440 horsepower in a 2-cylinder engine.

Life, Inspire, Cylinders

You can look at things all your life and not see them really. This ‘seeing’ is, in a way, a ‘not seeing,’ if you follow me. It is more of a search for something, in which, being blindfolded, you develop the tactile, the olfactory, the auditory senses —and thus see for the first time.

Way, Firsts, Looks

Henry Miller (1950). “The waters reglitterized”

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