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Henry Miller Quotes about Writing

All Henry Miller 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 quotes

Work on one thing at a time until finished.

Work on one thing at a time until finished.

Writing, One Thing At A Time, Finished

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

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. The first quivering word he puts to paper is the word of the wounded angel: pain.

Pain, Live Life, Writing

Henry Miller (2007). “Sexus: The Rosy Crucifixion I”, p.18, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

A man writes to throw off the poison which he has accumulated because of his false way of life. He is trying to recapture his innocence, yet all he succeeds in doing (by writing) is to inoculate the world with a virus of his disillusionment. No man would set a word down on paper if he had the courage to live out what he believed in.

Writing, Men, Trying

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

What is an artist? He's a man who has antennae, who knows how to hook up to the currents which are in atmosphere, in the cosmos.

Writing, Men, Artist

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

The great work must inevitably be obscure, except to the very few, to those who like the author himself are initiated into the mysteries. Communication then is secondary: it is perpetuation which is important. For this only one good reader is necessary.

Communication, Writing, Important

Henry Miller (1959). “The Henry Miller Reader”, p.246, New Directions Publishing

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.

Writing, Artist, America

Henry Miller (1970). “The Air-Conditioned Nightmare”, p.16, New Directions Publishing

When you can't create you can work

Writing

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

Writing, like life itself, is a voyage of discovery.

Nature, Writing, Discovery

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

If the poet can no longer speak for society, but only for himself, then we are at the last ditch.

Writing, Lasts, Speak

Henry Miller (1962). “The Time of the Assassins: A Study of Rimbaud”, p.33, New Directions Publishing

You have to write a million words before you find your voice as a writer.

Writing, Voice, Millions

One can be absolutely truthful and sincere even though admittedly the most outrageous liar. Fiction and invention are of the very fabric of life.

Liars, Lying, Writing

Henry Miller (1959). “The Henry Miller Reader”, p.247, New Directions Publishing

There is the happiness which comes from creative effort. The joy of dreaming, creating, building, whether in painting a picture, writing an epic, singing a song, composing a symphony, devising new invention, creating a vast industry.

Dream, Song, Writing

Writing is its own reward.

Writing, Rewards

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

I struggled in the beginning. I said I was going to write the truth, so help me God. And I thought I was. I found I couldn't. Nobody can write the absolute truth.

Writing, Helping, God Help Me

Writing, like life itself, is a voyage of discovery. The adventure is a metaphysical one: it is a way of approaching life indirectly, of acquiring a total rather than a partial view of the universe. The writer lives between the upper and lower worlds: he takes the path in order eventually to become the path himself.

Writing, Adventure, Discovery

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

No man would set a word down on paper if he had the courage to live out what he believed in.

Writing, Men, Paper

Henry Miller (2007). “Sexus: The Rosy Crucifixion I”, p.18, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

He is trying to recapture his innocence, yet all he succeeds in doing (by writing) is to inoculate the world with a virus of his disillusionment.

Writing, Trying, Viruses

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

Understanding is not a piercing of the mystery, but an acceptance of it, a living blissfully with it, in it, through and by it.

Writing, Acceptance, Understanding

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

I have made a silent compact with myself not to change a line of what I write. I am not interested in perfecting my thoughts, nor my actions.

Writing, Lines, Action

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

I had to learn, as I soon did, that one must give up everything and not do anything else but write, that one must writer and write and write, even if everybody in the world advises you against it, even if nobody believes in you.

Giving Up, Believe, Writing

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

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

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

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

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

Hate, Writing, Letters

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