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Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac Quotes

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Famous Jack Kerouac Quotes

“In all this welter of women I still hadn't got one for myself, not that I was trying too hard, but sometimes I felt lonely to see everybody paired off and having a good time and all I did was curl up in my sleeping bag in the rosebushes and sigh and say bah. For me it was just red wine in my mouth and a pile of firewood”

TryingStillsSometimesHardFeltSleepMouthsRedLonelyWineGood TimesBagsSighHaving A Good TimeCurlsRed WineTrying Too HardFirewood
Book:Road Novels 1957-1960
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“I ate apple pie and ice cream—it was getting better as I got deeper into Iowa, the pie bigger, the ice cream richer. There were the most beautiful bevies of girls everywhere I looked in Des Moines that afternoon—they were coming home from high school—but I had no time for thoughts like that…So I rushed past the pretty girls, and the prettiest girls in the world live in Des Moines.”

WorldHomeSchoolPastBeautifulGirlHigh SchoolBiggerDeeperIceGet BetterApplesComing HomeAfternoonCreamPieIce CreamPretty GirlIowaPrettiestApple PieDes Moines
Book:Road Novels 1957-1960
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“Somebody had tipped the American continent like a pinball machine and all the goofballs had come rolling to LA in the southwest corner. I cried for all of us. There was no end to the American sadness and the American madness. Someday we'll all start laughing and roll on the ground when we realize how funny it's been.”

EndsRealizingLaughingSadnessMachinesMadnessCornersSomedayContinentsCriedRollingPinball
Book:On the Road: The Original Scroll: The Original Scroll
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“I believed in a good home, in sane and sound living, in good food, good times, work, faith and hope. I have always believed in these things. It was with some amazement that I realized I was one of the few people in the world who really believed in these things without going around making a dull middle class philosophy out of it. I was suddenly left with nothing in my hands but a handful of crazy stars.”

PeopleWorldLifePhilosophyHomeHandsLeftStarsSoundClassCrazyMiddleI RealizedDullGood TimesMiddle ClassSaneHandfulAmazementGood FoodHope And Faith
Author:Jack Kerouac
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“colleges being nothing but grooming schools for the middle-class non-identity which usually finds its perfect expression on the outskirts of the campus in rows of well-to-do houses with lawns and television sets in each living room with everybody looking at the same thing and thinking the same thing at the same time while the Japhies of the world go prowling in the wilderness to hear the voice crying in the wilderness, to find the ecstacy of the stars, to find the dark mysterious secret of the origin of faceless wonderless crapulous civilization.”

ThinkingWorldWellsSchoolHouseStarsVoiceDarkPerfectRoomsSecretClassMiddleCryIdentityTelevisionCollegeExpressionCivilizationMysteriousMiddle ClassWildernessLiving RoomLawnsCampusGroomingFacelessDharma BumsProwlingThinking The Same
Book:The Dharma Bums
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“a fool forgetting all the ideals and joys I knew before, in my recent years of drinking and disappointment, what does he care if he hasn't got any money: he doesn't need any money, all he needs is his rucksack with those little plastic bags of dried food and a good pair of shoes and off he goes and enjoys the privileges of a millionaire in surroundings like this.”

IfsNeedsYearsLittlesDoeCareJoyEnjoyForgetFoolIdealsDrinkingShoesPrivilegeDisappointmentBagsPairsPlasticSurroundingsMillionaireAnd OffPair Of ShoesPlastic BagsDoes He Care
Book:The Dharma Bums
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“Your mind makes out the orange by seeing it, hearing it, touching it, smelling it, tasting it and thinking about it but without this mind, you call it, the orange would not be seen or heard or smelled or tasted or even mentally noticed, it's actually, that orange, depending on your mind to exist! Don't you see that? By itself it's a no-thing, it's really mental, it's seen only of your mind. In other words it's empty and awake.”

ThinkingMindSeeingHeardEmptyHearingAwakeTouchingOrangeTastingMake Out
Book:The Dharma Bums
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“Life was dense, dark, ancient. They watched Dean, serious and insane at his raving wheel, with eyes of hawks. All had their hands outstretched. They had come down from the back mountains and higher places to hold forth their hands for something they thought civilization could offer, and they never dreamed the sadness and the poor broken delusion of it.”

KnowsWayHandsWould BeEyeDarkPoorSadnessSeriousBrokenHigherCivilizationOffersMountainAncientInsaneBridgesWheelsBombsSomedayDelusionCracksStretchingDeanDenseHawks
Author:Jack Kerouac
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