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Henry Miller Quotes about Art

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To make living itself an art, that is the goal.

To make living itself an art, that is the goal.

Henry Miller
Art, Teaching, Goal
Henry Miller (1957). “Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch”, p.400, New Directions Publishing

Art teaches nothing, except the significance of life.

Henry Miller
Art, Teach, Significance
Henry Miller (1941). “The Wisdom of the Heart”, p.24, New Directions Publishing

The art of living is based on rhythm - on give & take, ebb & flow, light & dark, life & death. By acceptance of all aspects of life, good & bad, right & wrong, yours & mine, the static, defensive life, which is what most people are cursed with, is converted into a dance, 'the dance of life,' metamorphosis.

Henry Miller
Art, Good Life, Acceptance

The artist is the opposite of the politically minded individual, the opposite of the reformer, the opposite of the idealist. The artist does not tinker with the universe, he recreates it out of his own experience and understanding of life.

Henry Miller
Art, Opposites, Understanding
Henry Miller (1961). “The Cosmological Eye”, p.193, New Directions Publishing

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
Running, Art, Emotional
Henry Miller (1961). “Tropic of Cancer”

Art is only a means to life, the life more abundant. It merely points the way.

Henry Miller
Art, Mean, Way
Henry Miller (1941). “The Wisdom of the Heart”, p.24, New Directions Publishing

To live without killing is a thought which could electrify the world, if men were only capable of staying awake long enough to let the idea soak in.

Henry Miller
Stay Strong, Art, Philosophy
Henry Miller (1959). “The Henry Miller Reader”, p.131, New Directions Publishing

Why change the world? Change worlds!

Henry Miller
Art, Philosophy, History
Henry Miller (1962). “Stand Still Like the Hummingbird”, p.190, New Directions Publishing

The waking mind, you see, is the least serviceable in the arts.

Henry Miller
Art, Mind, Wake Up
"Conversations with Henry Miller".

A year ago, six months ago, I thought that I was an artist. I no longer think about it, I am. Everything that was literature has fallen from me. There are no more books to be written, thank God. This then? 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.

Henry Miller
Art, Book, Character
Henry Miller, Mary V. Dearborn (2007). “Crazy Cock”, p.8, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

I demanded a realm in which I should be both master and slave at the same time: The world of art is the only such realm.

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

The practice of any art demands more than 'mere savoir faire'. One must not only be in love with what one does, one must also know how to make love. In love self is obliterated. Only the beloved counts.

Henry Miller
Art, Practice, Self

The poem is the dream made flesh, in a two-fold sense: as work of art, and as life, which is a work of art.

Henry Miller
Dream, Art, Two
Henry Miller (1941). “The Wisdom of the Heart”, p.4, New Directions Publishing

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.

Henry Miller
Art, Book, Destiny
Tropic of Cancer ch. 1 (1934)

Men are not suffering from the lack of good literature, good art, good theatre, good music, but from that which has made it impossible for these to become manifest. In short, they are suffering from the silent shameful conspiracy (the more shameful since it is unacknowledged) which has bound them together as enemies of art and artists.

Henry Miller
Art, Men, Enemy
Henry Miller (1957). “Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch”, p.57, New Directions Publishing

Whoever uses the spirit that is in him creatively is an artist. To make living itself an art, that is the goal.

Henry Miller
Art, Creativity, Goal
Henry Miller (1957). “Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch”, p.400, New Directions Publishing

Art is only a means to life, to the life more abundant. It is not in itself the life more abundant. It merely points the way, something which is overlooked not only by the public, but very often by the artist himself. In becoming an end it defeats itself.

Henry Miller
Art, Mean, Way
Henry Miller (1941). “The Wisdom of the Heart”, p.24, New Directions Publishing

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