For the artist to attach himself to his work, or identify himself with it, is suicidal.
If the poet can no longer speak for society, but only for himself, then we are at the last ditch.
The only law which is really lived up to wholeheartedly and with a vengeance is the law of conformity.
Greece is the home of the gods; they may have died but their presence still makes itself felt. The gods were of human proportion: they were created out of the human spirit.
My one thought is to get out of New York, to experience something genuinely American.
The light of Greece opened my eyes, penetrated my pores, expanded my whole being.
Each man has his own way of being himself and of saying it so ultimately that he can’t be denied.
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.
We must get going. Tomorrow, tomorrow...
Part of the act of creating is in discovering your own kind. They are everywhere. But don’t look for them in the wrong places.
Without a Coca-Cola life is unthinkable.
If we have not found heaven within, it is a certainty we will not find it without.
Leave out the parts that readers tend to skip.
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.
To paint is to love again, and to love is to live life to the fullest.
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.
It’s the pleasure of picking up the brush and seeing what happens.
The purpose of life is to remember.
There is something else to be said about this immediate, spontaneous way of working, and that is this: in such moments, one is playing at the game of creation.
Surrealism is merely the reflection of the death process. It is one of the manifestations of a life becoming extinct, a virus which quickens the inevitable end.