““He will never be satisfied,” writes one biographer...I know because I suffer from the same disease...I don't believe for a minute that the flowers ever faded or the stars were ever dimmed in Rimbaud's eyes...It was the world of men that his weary glance saw things pale and fade. He began by wanting to “see all, feel all, exhaust everything, explore everything, say everything.” ...He had no choice of fighting for the rest of his life to hold the ground he had gained or to renounce the struggle utterly. Why could he not have compromised? Because compromise was not in his vocabulary. He was a fanatic from childhood, a person who had to go the whole hog or die. In this lied his purity, his innocence.”
More from Henry Miller
“We do not talk—we bludgeon one another with facts and theories gleaned from cursory…”
“Give me a few days of peace in your arms—I need it terribly. I’m ragged, worn, exhausted.…”
“To have her here in bed with me, breathing on me, her hair in my mouth — I count that…”
“Now people are books to me. I read them from cover to cover and toss them aside. I devour…”