Jump off. You are a protected individual. Do not fear.
Henry MillerRead
It does me good to write a letter which is not a response to a demand, a gratuitous letter, so to speak, which has accumulated in me like the waters of a reservoir.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writing freely can be therapeutic and fulfilling.
In this quote, Henry Miller expresses the joy and liberation that comes from writing a letter without an obligation or expectation of response. He likens this act to the natural accumulation of water in a reservoir, suggesting that unexpressed thoughts and feelings can build up inside us, and writing serves as a necessary release and a means of personal expression.
Themes
WritingLetterExpressionReleaseCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote in a workshop about creative writing and self-expression.
More from Henry Miller
All quotes →I saw through to the last sign and symbol, but I could not read her face. I could see only the eyes shining through, huge, fleshy-like luminous beasts, as though I were swimming behind them in the electric effluvia of her incandescent vision.
Henry MillerRead
The essential thing is to WANT to sing. This then is a song. I am singing.
Henry MillerRead
Great God! What have I turned into? What right have you people to clutter up my life, steal my time, probe my soul, suckle my thoughts, have me for your companion, confidant, and information bureau? What do you take me for? Am I an entertainer on salary, required every evening to play an intellectual farce under your stupid noses? Am I a slave, bought and paid for, to crawl on my belly in front of you idlers and lay at your feet all that I do and all that I know?
Henry MillerRead
We are swimming on the face of time and all else has drowned, is drowning, or will drown.
Henry MillerRead
To sing you must first open your mouth. You must have a pair of lungs, and a little knowledge of music. It is not necessary to have an accordion, or a guitar. The essential thing is to want to sing. This then is a song. I am singing.
Henry MillerRead
Similar quotes
For as men in battle are continually in the way of shot, so we, in this world, are ever within the reach of Temptation.
William PennRead
Your master is he who controls that on which you have set your heart or wish to avoid.
EpictetusRead
If something were brought about without an antecedent cause, it would be untrue that all things come about through fate. But if it is plausible that all events have an antecedent cause, what ground can be offered for not conceding that all things come about through fate?
ChrysippusRead
Because I'm a Karamazov. Because when I fall into the abyss, I go straight into it, head down and heels up, and I'm even pleased that I'm falling in just such a humiliating position, and for me I find it beautiful.
Fyodor DostoevskyRead
In every human society, there is an effort continually tending to confer on one part the height of power and happiness, and to reduce the other to the extreme of weakness and misery. The intent of good laws is to oppose this effort and to diffuse their influence universally and equally.
Cesare BeccariaRead
One of the problems with the kill-or-capture metric is that it has often been to the exclusion of having a deeper, richer understanding of the movement, its origins, and our adversaries' mindset. The nuances are absolutely critical. Our adversaries are wedded to the ideology that informs and fuels their struggle, and, by not paying attention, we risk not knowing our enemy.
Bruce HoffmanRead