Tropic of Cancer Quotes

"There is only one aim in life and that is to live it."
(Karl Shapiro, Intro to Tropic of Cancer by Henri Miller)

"'I am a free man -- and I need my freedom. I need to be alone. I need to ponder my shame and my despair in seclusion; I need the sunshine and the paving stones of the streets without companions, without conversations, face to face with myself, with only the music of my heart for company.'" (Miller quotes Papini).

"It is not difficult to be alone if you are poor and a failure. An artist is always alone- if he is an artist. No, what the artist needs is loneliness." (Miller).

"My mind is curiously alert; it's as though my skull had a thousand mirrors inside it. My nerves are taut, vibrant! the notes are like glass balls dancing on a million jets of water. I've never been to a concert before on such an empty belly. Nothing escapes me, not even the tiniest pin falling. It's as though I had no clothes on and every porse of my body was a window and all the light flooding my gizzards." (Henri Miller).