That's what their substance is. Henry Miller, Tropic of Capricorn Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not understood. When I use the word, I see civilization as a crippling, thwarting thing, a stultifying thing. For me it was always so. I don't believe in the golden ages, you see. . . .
Civilization is the arteriosclerosis of culture.
Henry Miller, The Cosmological Eye A book is a part of life, a manifestation of life, just as much as a tree or a horse or a star. It obeys its own rhythms, its own laws, whether it be a novel, a play, or a diary. Until it is kindled by a spirit as flamingly alive as the one which gave it birth a book is dead to us. Words divested of their magic are but dead hieroglyphs. Pictures tend to trivialize experience.