891 Quotes by Henry Miller

It seems to me that everything dates from that aborted affair.

I shall be the wild park in the midst of the nightmare of perfection, the still, unshakeable dream in the midst of frenzied activity, the random shot on the white billiard table of logic, I shall know neither how to weep nor protest, but I shall be there always in absolute silence to receive and to restore.

Night has fallen. I’m no longer hungry. I have only an insane desire to be happy. That means I want to share my intoxication with you and everybody. That is maudlin.

She wanted them to argue with her, to gush, to rhapsodize. She wanted them to sparkle, not to chew. Words... words... words... She gobbled them up, spewed them out again, added them up, juggled them, nursed them along, carried them to bed and put them under the pillow like soiled pajamas, slept on them, snored over them. Words... When every other memory of her had fled there would remain-HER WORDS.

Instead of asking ‘How much damage will the work in question bring about?’ why not ask ‘How much good? How much joy?’

My policy has always been to burn my bridges behind me. My face is always set toward the future. If I make a mistake it is fatal. When I am flung back I fall all the way back – to the very bottom. My one safeguard is my resiliency. So far I have always bounced back.

I used to think a bird couldn’t fly if its wings got wet.

I haven’t any allegiance, any responsibilities, any hatreds, any worries, any prejudices, any passion. I’m neither for nor against. I’m a neutral.

The Earth is a paradise, the only one we will ever know. We will realize it the moment we open our eyes. We don’t have to make it a paradise – it is one. We have only to make ourselves fit to inhabit it. The man with the gun, the man with murder in his heart, cannot possibly recognize paradise even when he is shown it.