“...the monstrous thing is not that men have created roses out of this dung heap, but that, for some reason or other, they should want roses. For some reason or other man looks for the miracle, and to accomplish it he will wade through blood. He will debauch himself with ideas, he will reduce himself to a shadow if for only one second of his life he can close his eyes to the hideousness of reality. Everything is endured- disgrace, humiliation, poverty, war, crime, ennui- in the belief that overnight something will occur, a miracle, which will render life tolerable. And all the while a meter is running inside and there is no hand that can reach in there and shut it off.”

American novelist, short story writer, and essayist

Henry Miller was an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. He became known for reshaping modern prose through semi-autobiographical fiction that mixed personal experience with social criticism, philosophical reflection, stream of consciousness, explicit language, surreal association, and mysticism. His best-known works in this mode include Tropic of Cancer, Black Spring, Tropic of Capricorn, and the trilogy The Rosy Crucifixion, drawn from his years in New York City and Paris. These books were banned in the United States until 1961. He also wrote travel memoirs and literary criticism, and he painted watercolors.