Artist Quotes by Henry Miller

“Artists never thrive in colonies.”

— Henry Miller

The waking mind, you see, is the least serviceable in the arts.

— Henry Miller

Paint what you like and die happy

— Henry Miller

To make living itself an art, that is the goal.

— Henry Miller

Art is only a means to life, the life more abundant. It merely points the way.

— Henry Miller

Whoever uses the spirit that is in him creatively is an artist. To make living itself an art, that is the goal.

— Henry Miller

What is an artist? He's a man who has antennae, who knows how to hook up to the currents which are in…

— Henry Miller

An artist is always alone - if he is an artist. No, what the artist needs is loneliness.

— Henry Miller

For the artist to attach himself to his work, or identify himself with it, is suicidal.

— Henry Miller

An artist earns the right to call himself a creator only when he admits to himself that he is but an instrument.

— Henry Miller

“Sometimes I think I'm an artist. Once in a great while I even think I may be a visionary, but never a…

— Henry Miller

The artist is the opposite of the politically minded individual, the opposite of the reformer, the opposite of the idealist. The artist…

— Henry Miller

I see myself forever and ever as the ridiculous man, the lonely soul, the wanderer, the restless frustrated artist, the man in…

— Henry Miller

The dreamer whose dreams are non-utilitarian has no place in this world. In this world the poet is anathema, the thinker a…

— Henry Miller

“The artist is now giving a first coat of paint to that tautly stretched canvas which the scientist has been so busy…

— Henry Miller

“A great work of art, if it accomplishes anything, serves to remind us, or let us say to set us dreaming, of…

— Henry Miller

I feel that America is essentially against the artist, that the enemy of America is the artist, because he stands for individuality…

— Henry Miller

Art is only a means to life, to the life more abundant. It is not in itself the life more abundant. It…

— Henry Miller

America is no place for an artist: to be an artist is to be a moral leper, an economic misfit, a social…

— Henry Miller

All the lies and evasions by which man has nourished himself civilization, in a word is the fruits of the creative artist.…

— Henry Miller

Men are not suffering from the lack of good literature, good art, good theatre, good music, but from that which has made…

— Henry Miller

When I reflect that the task which the artist implicitly sets himself is to overthrow existing values, to make of the chaos…

— Henry Miller

It is now the fall of my second year in Paris. I was sent here for a reason I have not yet…

— Henry Miller

I didn't dare to think of anything then except the "facts." To get beneath the facts I would have had to be…

— Henry Miller

You make me tremendously happy to hold me undivided - to let me be the artist, as it were, and yet not…

— Henry Miller

Side by side with the human race there runs another race of beings, the inhuman ones, the race of artists who, goaded…

— Henry Miller

A year ago, six months ago, I thought that I was an artist. I no longer think about it, I am. Everything…

— Henry Miller

I had to learn to think, feel, and see in a totally new fashion, in an uneducated way, in my own way,…

— Henry Miller

“The art, the art of living, involves the act of creation. The work of art is nothing. It is only the tangible,…

— Henry Miller

“I had no time to make a world of my own. I had to stay fixed, like Atlas, my feet on the…

— Henry Miller

“Show me a man who over-elaborates and I will show you a great man! What is called their 'overelaboration' is my meat:…

— Henry Miller

“Myself I cannot see the persistence of the artist type. I see no need for the individual man of genius in such…

— Henry Miller

“I see myself forever and ever as the ridiculous [person], the lonely soul, the wanderer, the restless frustrated artist, the [person] in…

— Henry Miller

“It is not difficult to be alone if you are poor and a failure. An artist is always alone – if he…

— Henry Miller

“Up on the Brooklyn Bridge a man is standing in agony, waiting to jump, or waiting to write a poem, or waiting…

— Henry Miller

The worst sin that can be committed against the artist is to take him at his word, to see in his work…

— Henry Miller

We're creators by permission, by grace as it were. No one creates alone, of and by himself. An artist is an instrument…

— Henry Miller

“...the art of living involves the act of creation. The work of art is nothing. It is only the tangible, visible evidence…

— Henry Miller

Who but the artist has the power to open man up, to set free the imagination? The others - priest, teacher, saint,…

— Henry Miller