and all the rest: tidbits from henry miller

Part One: The Oranges of the Millennium

What was inaugurated with virginal modesty threatens to end as a bonanza. (11)

Artists never thrive in colonies. Ants do. (13)

Part Two: Peace and Solitude: A Potpourri

The longing to be reunited, with a common purpose and an all-embracing significance, is now universal. (57)

Nobody suffers. Only literature suffers. (67)

Men have an ingrained tendency to regard these irruptions of the spirit as closed dramas. (135)

It is abundance we worship, then common sense would dictate that we cease wasting our time and energy on the manufacture of destructive products and destructive thoughts. (141)

The fellow who is out to burn things up is the counterpart of the fool who thinks he can save the world. The world needs neither to be burned up nor to be saved. The world is, we are. Transients, if we buck it; here to stay, if we accept everything created is also creative. (144)

- Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch, Henry Miller