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Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac Quotes

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Famous Jack Kerouac Quotes

“You don't realize what a strain it is on the nerves to write or think-of-writing all day long, and to sleep full of nervous dreams, and to wake up not knowing who one is: this all stems from anxiety about finishing the book, about time 'growing short', etc., and the perpetual strain of invention.”

ThinkingWritingLongBookDreamRealizingSleepKnowingGrowingAnxietyWake UpInventionNervousEtcNervesPerpetualNot KnowingStemStrainFinishing
Book:Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac, 1947-1954
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“Then it's goodbye, Sangsara for me Besides, girls aren't as good as they look And Samadhi is better than you think When it starts in hitting your head In with Buzz of glittergold Heaven's Angels, wailing, saying We've been waiting for you since morning, Jack Why were you so long dallying in the sooty room? This transcendental Brilliance Is the better part (of Nothingness I sing) Okay. Quit. Mad. Stop.”

ThinkingLooksLongGirlHeavenWaitingRoomsMorningAngelOkayMadQuittingGoodbyeHittingNothingnessBrillianceBetter Than YouTranscendentalBuzzWaiting For YouSamadhiWailingHitting Your Head
Author:Jack Kerouac
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“You have absolutely no regard but yourself and your damned kicks. All you think about is what's hanging between your legs and how much money or fun you can get out of people and then you just throw them aside. Not only that but you're silly about it. It never occurs to you that life is serious and that there are people trying to make something decent out of it instead of just goofing all the time.”

PeopleThinkingTryingLife IsFunSeriousRegardLegsSillyKicksDecent
Book:On the Road
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“God was gone; it was the silence of his departure. It was a rainy night. It was the myth of the rainy night. Dean was popeyed with awe. This madness would lead nowhere. I didn't know what was happening to me, and I suddenly realized it was only the tea that we were smoking; Dean had bought some in New York. It made me think that everything was about to arrive - the moment when you know all and everything is decided forever.”

ThinkingKnowsMadeMomentsNightSilenceGoneForeverNew YorkHappeningsDecidedMadnessMythTeaSmokingAweDepartureDeanRainyRainy Night
Book:Road Novels 1957-1960
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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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“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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“Now the mountains were getting that pink tinge, I mean the rocks, they were just solid rock covered with the atoms of dust accumulated there since beginningless time. In fact I was afraid of those jagged monstrosities all around and over our heads. "They're so silent!" I said. "Yeah man, you know to me a mountain is a Buddha. Think of the patience, hundreds of thousands of years just sitting there bein perfectly perfectly silent and like praying for all living creatures in that silence and just waitin for us to stop all our frettin and foolin.”

ThinkingKnowsMenYearsMeanSaidFactsSilenceRocksPrayingMountainCreaturesSittingYeahSilentDustCoveredAtomsLiving CreaturesMonstrosity
Book:Road Novels 1957-1960
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“The secret of this kind of climbing, is like Zen. Don't think. Just dance along. It's the easiest thing in the world, actually easier than walking on flat ground which is monotonous. The cute little problems present themselves at each step and yet you don't hesitate and you find yourself on some other boulder you picked out for no special reason at all, just like zen.~ Japhy”

ThinkingWorldKindLittlesReasonProblemSecretStepsSpecialWalkingEasierCuteFinding YourselfFlatsClimbingMonotonousJust DanceBoulders
Book:Road Novels 1957-1960
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“What does it mean that I am in this endless universe, thinking that I'm a man sitting under the stars on the terrace of the earth, but actually empty and awake throughout the emptiness and awakedness of everything? It means that I'm empty and awake, that I know I'm empty and awake, and that there's no difference between me and anything else.”

ThinkingKnowsMenMeanDoeEarthUniverseStarsDifferencesSittingEmptyEndlessAwakeEmptinessTerrace
Book:The Dharma Bums
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“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.”

ThinkingWorldWayMindLittlesMatterNightUniverseStarsRealizingRoomsThis WorldMountainEndlessMilky Way
Book:Lonesome Traveler
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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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“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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