Back when I still had time to read (and before I knew or cared what an SLR, F-stop or fixed lens was), I came across a great passage in Tropic Of Capricorn by Henry Miller. I had tried reading ‘Cancer’ but it was this sequel that ended up doing me in. Maybe because it was set in New York and not in Paris like ‘Cancer’ was. Anyways, it was only 3 dollars from a street vendor on Bedford Ave. No Kindle or IPad version, just one paperback book to focus on. A few days into it (1) I arrived at the passage that would do me in. It was a very long winded and beautiful way of saying what Dan Wieden (2) of Wieden + Kennedy had said so succinctly 1988. The kind of passage that makes you need to put the book down. I wondered why no one had shared this little gem with me. That’s why I’m sharing it with you. It’s the section where Henry Miller is sitting in the theatre, bored… waiting for the curtains to come up… and in that moment he realizes… that this is what we have become… a generation of people waiting for the curtains to come up… and he gets out of his seat… while the lights are still on, and he leaves the theatre… and he rushes back home… and he sits down… and puts his fingers on his typewriter and he starts writing… his first novel.

1. I read very slowly.

2. Dan Wieden invented the phrase “Just Do It” for Nike.

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