Jack Kerouac
123 quotes
Biography
"[...]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!"
"Maybe that's what life is... a wink of the eye and winking stars."
"One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple."
"Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don't be sorry."
"There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars."
"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."
"The only truth is music."
"Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road."
"My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them."
"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."
"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."
"Don't use the phone. People are never ready to answer it. Use poetry."
"Down on the lake rosy reflections of celestial vapor appeared, and I said, "God, I love you"and looked to the sky and really meant it. "I have fallen in love with you, God. Take care of us all, one way or the other."To the children and the innocent it's all the same."
"Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life"
"And the story of love is a long sad tale ending in graves."
"But why think about that when all the golden lands ahead of you and all kinds of unforseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you're alive to see?"
"Pain or love or danger makes you real again...."
"I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another til I drop."
"I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future."
"My eyes were glued on lifeand they were full of tears."
"Be in love with your life, every detail of it."
"Aw I don't wanta go to no such thing, I just wanta drink in alleys.'...But you'll miss all that, just for some old wine.'There's wisdom in wine, goddam it!' I yelled. 'Have a shot!"
"Thinking of the stars night after night I begin to realize 'The stars are words' and all the innumerable worlds in the Milky Way are words, and so is this world too. And I realize that no matter where I am, whether in a little room full of thought, or in this endless universe of stars and mountains, it’s all in my mind."
"It is possible for the human spirit to win after all."
"Don't tell them too much about your soul. They're waiting for just that."