Henry Miller Quotes

Like every man I am my own worst enemy, but unlike most men I know too that I am my own saviour.

Up on the Brooklyn Bridge a man is standing in agony, waiting to jump, or waiting to write a poem, or waiting for the blood to leave his vessels because if he advances another foot the pain of his love will kill him.

"الكتابة بخط اليد على الجدار ليست غامضة ولا مهددة لمن يستطيع أن يترجمها. الجدران تنهار، وتنهار معها مخاوفنا وترددنا. لكن آخر جدار ينهار هو ذاك الذى يطوّق الذات داخله. ومن لا يقرأ بعينىّ الذات لا يقرأ أبدا. العين الداخلية تخترق الجدران كلها، وتفك طلاسم الخطوط كلها. تترجم "الرسائل" كلها. انها ليست عيناً قارئة أو مخمنة، بل عين واشية؛ لا تتلقى النور من الخارج، بل تُصدر نوراً. نوراً وفرحاً. وعبر النور والفرح ينفتح العالم، ينكشف ليبدو كما هو: جمال يفوق الوصف، وخلق لا ينتهى."

Your nearness is the nearness of planets. I am the void between you. If I withdraw there will be no void for you to swim in.

Jump off. You are a protected individual. Do not fear.

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

If I were reading a book and happened to strike a wonderful passage I would close the book then and there and go for a walk. I hated the thought of coming to the end of a good book. I would tease it along, delay the inevitable as long as possible, But always, when I hit a great passage, I would stop reading immediately. Out I would go, rain, hail, snow or ice, and chew the cud.

Tomorrow you may bring about the destruction of your world. Tomorrow you may sing in Paradise above the smoking ruins of your world-cities. But tonight I would like to think of one man, a lone individual, a man without name or country, a man whom I respect because he has absolutely nothing in common with you - MYSELF. Tonight I shall meditate upon that which I am.

No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance.

New York! The white prisons, the sidewalks swarming with maggots, the breadlines, the opium joints that are built like palaces, the kikes that are there, the lepers, the thugs, and above all, the ennui, the monotony of faces, streets, legs, houses, skyscrapers, meals, posters, jobs, crimes, loves... A whole city erected over a hollow pit of nothingness. Meaningless. Absolute meaningless.

Living with a whore — even the best whore in the world — isn't a bed of roses.

A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on you are enriched threefold.

All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without the benefit of experience.

The man who doesn't respond to music, the man without music in his soul is not to be trusted. A man like that is cold and empty, empty to the core.

Only a rich cunt can save me now,' he says with an air of utmost weariness. 'One gets tired of chasing after new cunts all the time. It gets mechanical. The trouble is, you see, I can't fall in love. I'm too much of an egoist. Women only help me to dream, that's all. It's a vice, like drink or opium. I've got to have a new one every day; if I don't I get morbid. I think too much. Sometimes I'm amazed at myself, how quick I pull it off — and how little it really means. I do it automatically like. Sometimes I'm not thinking about a woman at all, but suddenly I notice a woman looking at me and then, bango! it starts all over again. Before I know what I'm doing I've got her up to the room. I don't even remember what I say to them. I bring them up to the room, give them a pat on the ass, and before I know what it's all about it's over. It's like a dream.... Do you know what I mean?