Quotes from Henri Michaux

Impuissance, puissance des autres»

I was full of them. I had stopped being unfilled. Everything was perfection. I had no need to think, or weigh, or criticize, any more. No need to compare any more. My horizontal was now vertical. I existed at a height. I had not lived in vain.

I begin to write, almost without realizing it, without thinking, busy transmitting these words I don't recognize, although they are highly significant: "Too much! Too much! You're giving me too much!

I was the fireworks that despises the pyrotechnist, even when it can be proved that it is itself the pyrotechnist.

Books are boring to read. You can't move around in them as you wish. You are asked to follow. The trail is traced, one way.

First man knows, then he understands, last he sees, or thinks he sees, and embroiders. In the same way the true poet creates, then understands...sometimes.

I myself was a torrent, I was drowned, I was navigation. My great constitution hall, my ambassador's hall, my hall for gifts and exchanges into which I usher foreigners for a first examination—I had lost all my halls with my servants. I was alone, shaken around violently like a dirty thread in an energetic wash.

But this idea, after a few quick triturations, would in turn become dangerous, for is there anything in a word which cannot be turned into a dagger?

Extending his hands from his bed, Plume was astonished not to feel the wall: "Well," he concluded, "the ants must have eaten it away." And he went back to sleep. Shortly thereafter, his wife shook him awake: "Take a good look, lazybones! While you were so busy sleeping, someone went and stole our house!" And indeed, stretching out on every side there was nothing but solid sky. "So it goes," he thought.

Låt inte någon välja ut dina syndabockar. Det är din sak. Om den skulle sammanfalla med någon annans syndabock, dussintals eller fler, byt bock. Den kan inte vara din.

Odchodzisz beze mnie, moje ?ycie, Toczysz si?, A ja wci?? czekam, zanim zrobi? krok, Ty ju? gdzie indziej stajesz do walki ...

Étale étale, la mer intérieure Puisse-t-elle demeurer étale… Un seul navire répondra à tout ...

It came to me late, as an adult, the desire to draw and participate in the world of lines.