How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
The cancer of time is eating us away. (1.3)
Well, this is pretty straightforward. And pretty grim, too. Right off the bat, we're introduced to Henry's cynical side. He just doesn't care for time and all of the control it involves. His rule of thumb? Stop paying attention to all that nonsense and just be.
Quote #2
The world is a cancer eating itself away. (1.8)
Looks like the world isn't faring so well either. Henry believes that's because people have just stopped caring about things like creativity and free expression. Instead, they've gotten all wrapped up in productivity and making moola.
Quote #3
[Carl and Boris] are possessed. They glow inwardly with a white flame. They are mad and tone deaf. They are sufferers. (1.15)
Henry definitely abides by the artist as sufferer motif. It's no surprise that he thinks the best sufferers are also the best writers.
Quote #4
The dramatist is sick and from above his scalp looks more scabrous than ever. (2.12)
This unappetizing description is of Tania's boyfriend, Sylvester. He just isn't looking so hot, which, in Henry Miller's world, is a reflection of his failures as a dramatist.
Quote #5
It was ordained that the women must suffer, that off-stage there should be more terror and violence, more disasters, more suffering, more woe and misery. (2.19)
It's not clear whether Miller's getting all Garden of Eden on us, but he does seem to believe that women are meant to suffer. What he doesn't do is reflect on how he perpetuates that suffering through his own behavior. Looking at the bigger picture might benefit this guy—and the women around him.
Quote #6
You smile at me so confidently, so calculatingly. I'm flattering the ass off you, can't you tell? While I listen to your crap she's got her hand on me—but you don't see that. You think I like to suffer—that's my role. O.K. (5.4)
While Henry gets felt up under the table, he glares at Sylvester. And you know what? He likes that Sylvester pities him—it's all part of Miller's smoke and mirrors. He likes that other people thinks he suffers when, really, he's kind of enjoying it all.
Quote #7
Even before the music begins there is that bored look on people's faces. A polite form of self-torture, the concert. (6.16)
Except for maybe you super-cultured Shmoopers out there, we can all relate to this one. Henry likes art, but going to a classical music concert is some form of punishment. It's one of those things that's good for you, yeah, but it feels like work. (Shmoop advice: give it a shot.)
Quote #8
"No, the best thing to do would be to marry her and then get a disease right away. Only not syphilis. Cholera, let's say, or yellow fever." (8.67)
Henry Miller's advice hour: marry a rich lady and then get sick so you don't have to have sex with her. Man, this guy is great at hatching plans to get his friends out of relationships. Dear Abby, watch out.
Quote #9
Despite the fact that his legs were broken and his ribs busted, he had managed to rise to all fours and grope about for his false teeth (8.105)
Poor Peckover the proofreader. The guy falls down an elevator shaft and, in a last bid for dignity, searches for his teeth. Well, at least Henry gets his job at the newspaper. And as you can imagine, that's all our narrator really cares about.
Quote #10
Look at them on a rainy night, lying there stiff as mattresses—men, women, lice, all huddled together and protected by newspapers against spittle and the vermin that walks without legs (13.3).
Henry at least has a shred of sympathy for the people who are even worse off than he is. He knows that, in the end, being a writer will always protect him from completely giving up.