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Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac Quotes

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Famous Jack Kerouac Quotes

“...the tale that's told for no other reason but companionship, which is another (and my favorite) definition of literature, the tale that's told for companionship and to teach something religious, of religious reverence, about real life, in this real world which literature should (and here does) reflect.”

WorldShouldDoeRealReasonLiteratureReligiousTeachMy FavoriteDefinitionsReal LifeTalesReal WorldReverenceCompanionship
Book:Satori in Paris and Pic
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“The Beat Generation, that was a vision that we had, John Clellon Holmes and I, and Allen Ginsberg in an even wilder way, in the late forties, of a generation of crazy, illuminated hipsters suddenly rising and roaming America, serious, bumming and hitchhiking everywhere, ragged, beatific, beautiful in an ugly graceful new way.”

WayAmericaBeautifulVisionGenerationsCrazySeriousLateBeatsUglyRisingFortyNew WaysHolmesHipsterRaggedRoamingWilderHitchhikingBeat GenerationGinsberg
Book:The Portable Jack Kerouac
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“I realized these were all the snapshots which our children would look at someday with wonder, thinking their parents had lived smooth, well-ordered lives and got up in the morning to walk proudly on the sidewalks of life, never dreaming the raggedy madness and riot of our actual lives, our actual night, the hell of it, the senseless emptiness.”

ThinkingWellsLooksChildrenWisdomDreamNightParentWalksWonderMorningHellMadnessOur ChildrenI RealizedEmptinessSomedaySmoothRiotSidewalkSnapshotsActual Life
Book:On the Road
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“I have the right ideas, but my words are too... complicated. I need to simplify them, so that people won't get lost in the dark when they see and hear them. I want them to shine like beacons of light in a world of overly complicated darkness. One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”

PeopleWorldWantNeedsWritingIdeasLightLostDarkSimpleDarknessOne DayShiningComplicatedSongwritingSimplifyRight WordsBeaconsRight IdeasBeacons Of Light
Author:Jack Kerouac
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“-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.”

SoulStoriesDreamSpiritualSufferingGirlDarknessHellMysteryStreetsAngelEternityMovedMeetingsWanderRadiantLike Her
Book:The Subterraneans
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“But yet, but yet, woe, woe unto those who think that the Beat Generation means crime, delinquency, immorality, amorality ... woe unto those who attack it on the grounds that they simply don't understand history and the yearning of human souls ... woe in fact unto those who make evil movies about the Beat Generation where innocent housewives are raped by beatniks! ... woe unto those who spit on the Beat Generation, the wind'll blow it back.”

ThinkingHumansMeanSoulFactsEvilGenerationsCrimeWindBeatsBlowInnocentYearningWoeHuman SoulSpitHousewifeImmoralityBeat GenerationDelinquencyBeatnikAmoralityWoe Unto
Author:Jack Kerouac
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“Mankind will someday realize that we are actually in contact with the dead and with the other world, whatever it is; right now we could predict, if we only exerted enough mental will, what is going to happen within the next hundred years and be able to take steps to avoid all kinds of catastrophes. When a man dies he undergoes a mutation in his brain that we know nothing about now but which will be very clear someday if scientists get on the ball. The bastards right now are only interested in seeing if they can blow up the world.”

IfsKnowsMenWorldYearsKindEnoughHappensAbleDiesNextRealizingBrainStepsClearSeeingMankindRight NowHundredScientistBallsBlowContactAll KindsSomedayCatastropheOther WorldsMutation
Book:The Portable Jack Kerouac
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