Quotes by Jack Kerouac

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes Awww!”

“I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another till i drop. This is the night, what it does to you. I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.”

“I hope it is true that a man can die and yet not only live in others but give them life, and not only life, but that great consciousness of life.”

“My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them.”

“Maybe thats what life is...a wink of the eye and winking stars.”

“Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.”

“What is the feeling when youre driving away from people, and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? -its the too huge world vaulting us, and its good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.””

“All human beings are also dream beings. Dreaming ties all mankind together.”

“My witness is the empty sky.”

“I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion”

“What’s in store for me in the direction I don’t take?”

“Avoid the world, its just a lot of dust and drag and means nothing in the end.”

“A pain stabbed my heart as it did every time I saw a girl I loved who was going the opposite direction in this too-big world”

“All our best men are laughed at in this nightmare land.”

“No man should go through life without once experiencing healthy, even bored solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself and thereby learning his true and hidden strength.”

““…-no girl had ever moved me with a story of spiritual suffering and so beautifully her soul showing out radiant as an angel wandering in hell and the hell the selfsame streets I’d roamed in watching, watching for someone just like her and never dreaming the darkness and the mystery and eventuality of our meeting in eternity,””

“We were all delighted, we all realized we were leaving confusion and nonsense behind and performing our one and noble function of the time, move.”

“It seemed like this was one big Prozac nation, one big mess of malaise. Perhaps the next time half a million people gather for a protest march on the White House green it will not be for abortion rights or gay liberation, but because we’re all so bummed out.”

“Quick note here: if this crush-slash-swooning stuff is hard for you to stomach, if you’ve never had a similar experience, then you should come to grips with the fact that you’ve got a TV dinner for a heart and might want to consider climbing inside a microwave and turning it on high for at least an hour, which if you do consider only goes to show what kind of idiot you truly are because microwaves are way too small for anyone, let alone you, to climb into.”

“It occurs to her that he is attempting to let her win, an act she considers highly unnecessary since she is the stronger player. She does not appreciate his condescension. But two can play at this game, and she knows the female is infinitely more adept.”