I decided to let myself drift with the tide, to make not the least resistance to fate, no matter in what form it presented itself. Nothing that had happened to me thus far had been sufficient to destroy me; nothing had been destroyed but my illusions. I myself was intact. The world was intact. Tomorrow there might be a revolution, a plague, an earthquake; tomorrow there might not be left a single soul to whom one could turn for sympathy, for aid, for faith. It seemed to me that the great calamity had already manifested itself, that I could be no more truly alone than at this very moment. I made up my mind that I would hold onto nothing, that I would expect nothing.

— Henry Miller, The Tropic Of Cancer

Started reading Miller as a freshman in college. He became essential to a virgin male on the cusp of artistic study. I devoured him.

Rowdy, visceral, direct.He effortlessly displayed all that I lacked.Things I felt were basic to my becoming a man. He made passion essential.Made it OK to plunge.