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Henry Miller Quotes - Page 18

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Man torturing man is a fiend beyond description. You turn a corner in the dark and there he is. You congeal into a bundle of inanimate fear. You become the very soul of anesthesia. But there is no escaping him. It is

Man torturing man is a fiend beyond description. You turn a corner in the dark and there he is. You congeal into a bundle of inanimate fear. You become the very soul of anesthesia. But there is no escaping him. It is your turn now.

Henry Miller
Fear, Dark, Men
Henry Miller (1945). “The Air-conditioned Nightmare”, [New York] : New directions

You must be life for me to the very end," so he writes. "That is the only way in which to sustain my idea of you. Because you have gotten, as you see, tied up with something so vital to me, I do not think I shall ever shake you off. Nor do I wish to. I want you to live more vitally every day, as I am dead. That is why, when I speak of you to others, I am just a bit ashamed. It's hard to talk of one's self so intimately

Henry Miller
Writing, Thinking, Self

All the men she's been with and now you, just you, and the barges going by, masts and hulls, the whole damned current of life flowing through you, through her, through all the guys behind you and after you, the flowers and the birds and the sun streaming in and the fragrance of it choking you, annihilating you.

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

It is no accident that propels people like us to Paris. Paris is simply an artificial stage, a revolving stage that permits the spectator to glimpse all phases of the conflict. Of itself Paris initiates no dramas. They are begun elsewhere. Paris is simply an obstetrical instrument that tears the living embryo from the womb and puts it in the incubator.

Henry Miller
Drama, Paris, People
Henry Miller, John Calder (1985). “A Henry Miller reader”, Riverrun Pr

Perhaps I have not lined his portrait too clearly. But if he exists, if only for the reason that I have imagined him to be. He came from the blue and returns to the blue. He has not perished, he is not lost. Neither will he be forgotten.

Henry Miller
Blue, Return, Portraits

It does me good to write a letter which is not a response to a demand, a gratuitous letter, so to speak, which has accumulated in me like the waters of a reservoir.

Henry Miller
Writing, Water, Doe
Henry Miller (1952). “The books in my life”, p.216, Рипол Классик

The life of a creator is not the only life nor perhaps the most interesting which a man leads. There is a time for play and a time for work, a time for creation and a time for lying fallow. And there is a time, glorious too in its own way, when one scarcely exists, when one is a complete void. I mean-when boredom seems the very stuff of life.

Henry Miller
Lying, Mean, Men

There will be more calamities, more death, more despair. Not the slightest indication of a change anywhere. The cancer of our time is eating us away. Our heroes have killed themselves, or are killing themselves.

Henry Miller
Cancer, Hero, Despair
Henry Miller, John Calder (1985). “A Henry Miller reader”, Riverrun Pr

No matter how vast, how total, the failure of man here on earth, the work of man will be resumed elsewhere. War leaders talk of resuming operations on this front and that, but man's front embraces the whole universe.

Henry Miller
War, Men, Space
Henry Miller (1959). “The Henry Miller Reader”, p.132, New Directions Publishing

I am thinking of one woman and the rest is blotto. I say I am thinking of her, but the truth is I am dying a stellar death. I am lying there like a sick star waiting for the light to go out. Years ago I lay on this same bed and I waited and waited to be born. Nothing happened. Except that my mother, in her Lutheran rage, threw a bucket of water over me. My mother, poor imbecile that she was, thought I was lazy. She didn't know that I had gotten caught in the stellar drift, that I was being pulverized to a black extinction out there in the farthest rim of the universe.

Henry Miller
Mother, Stars, Lying
Henry Miller (1966). “Tropic of Capricorn”

The Teutons have been singing the swan song ever since they entered the ranks of history. They have always confounded truth with death.

Henry Miller
Song, Swans, Singing
Henry Miller (1963). “The Rosy Crucifixion”

The essential thing is to WANT to sing. This then is a song. I am singing.

Henry Miller
Song, Singing, Essentials
Henry Miller, John Calder (1985). “A Henry Miller reader”, Riverrun Pr

All my Calvaries were rosy crucifixions, pseudo-tragedies to keep the fires of hell burning brightly for the real sinners who are in danger of being forgotten.

Henry Miller
Real, Fire, Tragedy
Henry Miller (1966). “Tropic of Capricorn”

To be cured, we must rise from our graves and throw off the cerements of the dead. Nobody can do it for another - it is a private affair which is best done collectively. We must die as egos and be born again in the swarm, not separated and self-hypnotized, but individual and related.

Henry Miller
Change, Self, Ego
Henry Miller (2007). “Sexus: The Rosy Crucifixion I”, p.337, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

I don't know whether you've ever had a woman eat an apple while you were doing it. Well, you can imagine how that affects you.

Henry Miller
Sex, Apples, Imagine
Henry Miller (1966). “Tropic of Capricorn”

For a metaphysical treat stop at the Big Sur Inn, which is also a haven for stray cats and dogs. Life along the South Coast is just a bed of roses, with a few thorns and nettles interspersed.

Henry Miller
Dog, Travel, Cat

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