"What is not in the open street is false, derived, that is to say, literature."
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Quote collection
Henry Miller quotes (page 14 of 23)
441 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"I have found God, but he is insufficient."
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"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."
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"For the artist to attach himself to his work, or identify himself with it, is suicidal."
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"The new always carries with it the sense of violation, of sacrilege. What is dead is sacred; what is new, that is different, is evil, dangerous, or subversive."
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"There is nothing strange about fear: no matter in what guise it presents itself it is something with which we are all so familiar that when a man appears who is without it we are at once enslaved by him."
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"The word which gives the key to the national vice is waste. And people who are wasteful are not wise, neither can they remain young and vigorous. In order to transmute energy to higher and more subtle levels one must first conserve it."
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"How different the new order would be if we could consult the veteran instead of the politician."
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"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."
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"The dreamer whose dreams are non-utilitarian has no place in this world. In this world the poet is anathema, the thinker a fool, the artist an escapist, the man of vision a criminal."
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"I had learned to harness ignorance with presumption. I was ready to become an unacknowledged watercolorist."
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"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."
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"Plots and character don't make life. Life is here and now, anytime you say the word, anytime you let her rip."
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"Obscenity is a cleansing process, whereas pornography only adds to the murk."
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"The Englishman, be it noted, seldom resorts to violence; when he is sufficiently goaded he simply opens up, like the oyster, and devours his adversary."
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"Even if it doesn't work, there is something healthy and invigorating about direct action"
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"The man who is forever disturbed about the condition of humanity either has no problems of his own or has refused to face them."
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"Fame is an illusive thing - here today, gone tomorrow. The fickle, shallow mob raises its heroes to the pinnacle of approval today and hurls them into oblivion tomorrow at the slightest whim; cheers today, hisses tomorrow; utter forgetfulness in a few months."
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"I wanted to die; I wanted to surrender because I saw no sense in struggling. I felt that nothing would be proved, substantiated, added or subtracted by continuing an existence which I had not asked for."
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"I couldn't allow myself to think about her very long; if I had I would have jumped off the bridge. It's strange. I had become so reconciled to this life without her, and yet if I thought about her only for a minute it was enough to pierce the bone and marrow of my contentment and shove me back again into the agonizing gutter of my wretched past."
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