The Life and Times of Henry Miller

To Literary Critics, fans and censors alike, Henry Miller has long been an enigmatic figure. But here--and in his forthcoming autobiography, My Life and Times, edited and designed by Bradley Smith and scheduled for November 15 publication by Playboy Press--the 79-year-old author of Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, Nexus, Plexus and Sexus expresses his views on everything from pornography to ping-pong.

Sex: "It isn't the all-important thing for me to get a lay. I'm much more interested in being able to have a good time with a woman. If it's a matter of going to bed, fine, but if it isn't, that's all right, too. I appreciate women around like you would appreciate flowers. They add something to the atmosphere."

Pornography: "The funny thing about pornographic writing is that it doesn't stimulate me. It doesn't have much effect on me at all. In fact, I'd say it's boring to me. I'm a voyeur. Pictures, photos interest me very much. But reading about sex, no, not much. Unless it's done by a great artist." (continued overleaf)

Relationships: "I think it's quite possible for a man to take care of more than one woman--on condition that the parties concerned realize fully what they're in for. A lot of primitive societies have done it, more particularly in cases where there was a shortage of either men or women. A friend of mine thinks a man should take care of as many women as he can keep happy. But then there are economic problems, no?"

Appearance: "Men don't realize how much a woman can disregard so-called physical attraction, how they fall for homely, ugly, older men sometimes. Jesus, sometimes these homely bastards get the most beautiful women!"

Women: "You know, I'm not the he-man type and I'm always drawn to women of strength and character. I've noticed that. My battle with them is a battle of wits. Also, I find that I'm intrigued by women who are devious, who lie, who play games, who baffle me, who keep me on the fence all the time. I seem to enjoy that!"

The Real Miller: "Some readers and critics contend that there is a contradiction between myself as writer and as person. But they never knew me as an individual. I believe I describe myself in my books. There's the sensual me, the philosophical me, the religious me, the aesthetic me."

Pleasures: "My ideal day would be, first of all, no interruptions, no telephone calls, no visitors and no letters to answer that are immediate or important. A day for myself. I would have a good swim. And then I would like some time during the day for a good friend and a good ping-pong player to drop in, so I could spend a couple of hours playing ping-pong."

Painting: "There are times when people look at my work and say, 'How come we don't see any (continued on page 246)Henry Miller(continued from page 185) pornographic, obscene things in your paintings? Why is that? I don't know why. It never occurs to me when I'm painting. I don't paint from a standpoint of ideas. I express my ideas in writing. Painting is a day-by-day spontaneous thing. Whatever comes out comes out."

Creating: "What am I? Am I supposed to be a critic? I'm not, especially of my own work. I don't know what to relate my work to when I look at it. The primary thing for me is simply the pleasure of picking up the brush and seeing what happens. That's another thing, that expression 'what happens.' Rather than planning and delivering and executing, I let things happen. If there's to be any judgment, about my work, or criticism or appreciation, it has to be done by the viewer, not by the doer. The doer is finished with it the moment he's done it."

"What God did was to bring about order. In other words, He did not create. That's the definition in my mind of an artist, that he is only a man who rearranges things."

Writing: "I get a sensual enjoyment out of reliving an experience--maybe even an increased enjoyment. The experience seems heightened. There's a double play going on. The first time you do something, you're not conscious of it, as it were. You don't look at yourself in the mirror. Then, when you're writing, it's just like looking in a mirror and watching yourself doing it all over again. And you know you're performing this time. That's the difference between the conscious and the unconscious action."

"It's not what I have written, it's the writing itself. Because that's my life, writing. The pure act itself is what is most important. What I say is not so important. Often it's foolish, nonsensical, contradictory--that doesn't bother me at all. Did I enjoy it? Did I reveal what was in me? That's the thing. And, of course, I don't know what's in me. That's the really important thing. The difference between me and other writers is that they struggle to get down what they've got up here in the head. I struggle to get out what's below, in the solar plexus, in the nether regions."

Eros: "I think of sex as a very natural thing, like birth or death. I don't think it has to be given special consideration as a subject. It's a big part of life--half of life, if you like, but I don't see that we need put such great emphasis on it. Lawrence did, however. It was a big thing in his life. I think somewhere he said there were two roads to salvation; one was the religious route and the other was the sexual. Well, I don't think of sex as a liberating force."

"For me sex wasn't an everyday thing. Attached to the woman's cunt was always the woman's cunt was always the woman herself. The woman was the most interesting thing. The cunt was important, sure, but that wasn't the whole of it, except in some rare cases. When men refer to a woman as 'nothing but a cunt' or, rather, 'all cunt,' that's meaningful, too. But I was always more interested in the woman, the whole woman. More than that, I'm always interested in the mind. What is she thinking? What is this mind that I'm grappling with? Get at it! Penetrate it!"

"So many men look upon a relationship with a woman from the sexual angle. It's the thought of sex that's interesting to me. Everything about it. everything connected with the realm of thought intrigues me. Of course. I have a great imagination. I can wonder and be mystified about how it's done here and there, everywhere, by what variety of types, and so on. But sex isn't an imperative. I can go without, too."

Age: "I don't think you can draw any specific conclusions about the effect of the difference in age between husbands and wives. It depends on the individual. With a man of creative nature, age doesn't matter greatly. Look at Pablo Casals or Picasso. With younger women, you're not only the father again but the teacher and the lover, too. As for the sex end of it, that again depends on the individuals concerned. I know some marriages where there is very little sex, but the relationship is a good one."

Love: "I'm a man who's constantly falling in love. People say I'm an incurable romantic. Perhaps I am. In any case, I'm grateful to the powers that be that I'm that way. It's brought me sorrow and joy; I wouldn't want it any other way. People work better, create better, when they're in love."

Himself: "There must be something perverse about me. What I mean is that I want to be the opposite of what I am, and yet, to be very frank and honest with you, I'm very happy just as I am. I wouldn't want to change. There it is--a frightful contradiction. I admit it shamelessly. I stress this matter of being versus doing because it's not just my conflict, it's the conflict of the modern world. We are at the stage now where we can look upon our activity--not our creation but our activity, and say it stinks. It is the ruination of our world. This busy-bee activity, this senseless activity. That's what I'm against."

Living: "It's hard for some people to understand how one can enjoy life when living at the bottom of the pile. Yet I think that that is the most important thing that ever happened to me, to be without anything, no crutch of any kind, cut off completely from all help. You have to find it every day, this help; you have to learn to live from day to day. Sure, you suffer and you're miserable, but it's so fascinating that you become thoroughly alive. You live by your instincts, just like the animal. That's a great thing for us overcivilized people to know, how to be a bird of prey, an animal, wolfing every meal, begging, being humiliated time and again, accepting it, being pushed down and then bouncing back again. Each day you get through is something of a miracle."

"Every day men are squelching their instincts, their desires, their impulses, their intuitions. One has to get out of the fucking machine he is trapped in and do what he wants to do. But we say 'No, I have a wife and children, I'd better not think of it.' That is how we commit suicide every day. It would be better if a man did what he liked to do and failed than, to become a successful nobody."

Death: "It has become intriguing to me, because in the past ten years, I have become sharply aware that one day I am going to die. Till then, I hardly ever thought about my own death. How do I feel about it? What do I think about it? Well, nobody knows anything about death. It's a complete blank. No one ever came back from the grave. I have such great, great faith in life that it's difficult for me to think of the absence of life. I regard death as a transition from one form of existence to another."

"I have no real plans for the future. Every day when I wake up, I want to say, 'Le bel aujourd'hui,' and there shouldn't be anything more to it. I want to live the day in whatever fashion I like, and I have no fashion. I'm at that wonderful, beautiful point where I don't see the need for any prescribed way of living."