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Ken Kesey

Ken Kesey Quotes

Author

Ken Kesey was an influential American author best known for his anti-establishment novel 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'. His works often delve into social and political issues, and are celebrated for their unique narrative style and profound insights.

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All Literature One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Thinking Ifs Men Cuckoos Knows People Way Mcmurphy

Famous Ken Kesey Quotes

“The secret of being a top-notch con man is being able to know what the mark wants, and how to make him think he's getting it.”

Thinking Knows Men Want Able Secret Mark Notches Top Notch

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“That ain't me, that ain't my face. It wasn't even me when I was trying to be that face. I wasn't even really me them; I was just being the way I looked, the way people wanted.”

People Way Trying Wanted Faces Just Being Cuckoos One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition

“All I know is this: nobody's very big in the first place, and it looks to me like everybody spends their whole life tearing everybody else down.”

Knows Firsts Looks Whole Bigs Psychology Whole Life One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition

“I don't think you fully understand the public, my friend; in this country, when something is out of order, then the quickest way to get it fixed is the best way.”

Thinking Way Country Order My Friends Best Way Fixed

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“I lay in bed the night before the fishing trip and thought it over, about my being deaf, about the years of not letting on I heard what was said, and I wonder if I can ever act any other way again. But I remembered one thing: it wasn't me that started acting deaf; it was people that first started acting like I was too dumb to hear or see or say anything at all.”

People Ifs Way Years Firsts Said I Can Night Acting Wonder One Thing Heard Bed Lays Dumb Remembered Fishing Say Anything Deaf

Author:Ken Kesey

“If you don't watch it people will force you one way or the other, into doing what they think you should do, or into just being mule-stubborn and doing the opposite out of spite.”

People Ifs Thinking Way Should Force Watches Opposites One Way Spite Just Being Stubborn Mules

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“We'd just shared the last beer and slung the empty can out the window at a stop sign and were just waiting back to get the feel of the day, swimming in that kind of tasty drowsiness that comes over you after a day of going hard at something you enjoy doing -- half sunburned and half drunk and keeping awake only because you wanted to savor the taste as long as you could.”

Feels Kind Long Hard Wanted Lasts Waiting Enjoy Half Taste Window Empty Drunk Beer Awake Over You Swimming Tasty Go Hard

Author:Ken Kesey

“He was in his chair in the corner, resting a second before he came out for the next round -- in a long line of next rounds. The thing he was fighting, you couldn't whip it for good. All you could do was keep on whipping it, till you couldn't come out anymore and somebody else had to take your place.”

Long Fighting Next Lines Rounds Corners Chairs Whips Long Lines Whipping Whip It

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition

“It isn't by getting out of the world that we become enlightened, but by getting into the world…by getting so tuned in that we can ride the waves of our existence and never get tossed because we become the waves.”

World Life Inspirational Existence Wave Enlightened

Book:Kesey's garage sale

Source: Kesey's garage sale

“Never before did I realize that mental illness could have the aspect of power, power. Think of it: perhaps the more insane a man is, the more powerful he could become. Hitler an example. Fair makes the old brain reel, doesn't it?”

Thinking Men Realizing Powerful Brain Example Fairs Aspect Illness Mental Illness Insane

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“Ocean, Ocean I'll beat you in the end.”

Ends Ocean Beats

Book:Kesey's Jail Journal: Cut the M************ Loose

Source: Kesey's Jail Journal: Cut the M************ Loose

“Mr. Bibbit, you might warn this Mr. Harding that I'm so crazy I admit to voting for Eisenhower. Bibbit! You tell Mr. McMurphy I'm so crazy I voted for Eisenhower twice! And you tell Mr. Harding right back — he puts both hands on the table and leans down, his voice getting low — that I'm so crazy I plan to vote for Eisenhower again this November.”

Hands Might Voice Plans Crazy Lows Vote Tables Voting November Harding Mcmurphy

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“What the Chronics are - or most of us - are machines with flaws inside that can't be repaired, flaws born in, or flaws beat in over so many years of the guy running head-on into solid things that by the time the hospital found him he was bleeding rust in some vacant lot.”

Years Running Guy Found Born Beats Machines Flaws Hospitals Bleeding Rust Vacant Cuckoos One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“Like a cartoon world, where the figures are flat and outlined in black, jerking through some kind of goofy story that might be real funny if it weren't for the cartoon figures being real guys.”

Ifs World Kind Real Stories Might Guy Black Figures Flats Being Real Cartoon Goofy Real Funny

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“- he's finished with that; it's like an old clock that won't tell time but won't stop neither, with the hands bent out of shape and the face bare of numbers and the alarm bell rusted silent, an old worthless clock that just keeps ticking and cuckooing without meaning nothing.”

Hands Faces Numbers Shapes Silent Finished Clock Bells Bent Worthless Alarms Meaning Nothing

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“His whole body shakes with the strain as he tries to lift something he knows he can't lift, something everybody knows he can't lift. But, for just a second, when we hear the cement grind at our feet, we think, by golly, he might do it.”

Thinking Knows Trying Whole Body Might Feet Lifts Shakes Strain Grind Cement

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“They can't tell so much about you if you got your eyes closed.”

Ifs Life Eye Cuckoos One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“The stars up close to the moon were pale; they got brighter and braver the farther they got out of the circle of light ruled by the giant moon”

Light Stars Moon Circles Giants Pale Brighter

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition

“The best of all possible cages.' Ben stepped back to regard the job with a sad smile. 'What more can one ask?”

Jobs Asks Regard Cages

Book:Sometimes a Great Notion

Source: Sometimes a Great Notion

“No, my friend. We are lunatics from the hospital up the highway, psycho-ceramics, the cracked pots of mankind. Would you like me to decipher a Rorschach for you?”

Mankind My Friends Like Me Hospitals Pot Highways Cracked Psycho Decipher Ceramics Rorschach

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“High high in the hills , high in a pine tree bed. She's tracing the wind with that old hand, counting the clouds with that old chant, Three geese in a flock one flew east one flew west one flew over the cuckoo's nest”

Hands Three Tree Wind Bed West Clouds East Hills Counting Nests Flew Flocks Geese Cuckoos Tracing Pine Trees One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“For there is always a sanctuary more, a door that can never be forced, a last inviolable stronghold that can never be taken, whatever the attack; your vote can be taken, you name, you innards, or even your life, but that last stonghold can only be surrendered. And to surrender it for any reason other than love is to surrender love.”

Reason Lasts Names Love Is Taken Doors Vote Surrender Sanctuary Strongholds

Author:Ken Kesey

“You’re just a young kid. What are you doin’ here? You oughta be out in a convertible, why… bird-doggin’ chicks and bangin’ beaver. What are ya doin’ here, for Christ’s sake? What’s funny about that? Jesus, I mean, you guys do nothin’ but complain about how you can’t stand it in this place here and then you haven’t got the guts just to walk out!”

Mean Kids Young Guy Jesus Christ Walks Havens Bird Sake Complaining Guts Flew Chicks Cuckoos Beavers One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Mcmurphy

Author:Ken Kesey

“But he won’t let the pain blot out the humor no more’n he’ll let the humor blot out the pain.”

Pain One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Mcmurphy

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition

“The most work he did on [the urinals] was to run a brush once or twice apiece, singing some song as loud as he could in time to the swishing brush; then he'd splash in some Clorox and he'd be through. ... And when the Big Nurse...came in to check McMurphy's cleaning assignment personally, she brought a little compact mirror and she held it under the rim of the bowls. She walked along shaking her head and saying, "Why, this is an outrage... an outrage..." at every bowl. McMurphy sidled right along beside her, winking down his nose and saying in answer, "No; that's a toilet bowl...a TOILET bowl.”

Littles Bigs Running Song Answers Singing Mirrors Checks Noses Loud Nurse Bowls Brushes Cleaning Toilets Shaking Outrage Assignments Compact Rims Winking Mcmurphy

Author:Ken Kesey

“Sometimes I looked at them and sometimes they looked at me, but rarely did we look at one another.”

Looks Sometimes

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“He knows that you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy.”

Knows World Life Running Hurt Laughing Crazy Balance Flew Cuckoos One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Mcmurphy

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“The flock gets sight of a spot of blood on some chicken and they all go to peckin' at it, see, till they rip the chicken to shreds, blood and bones and feathers. But usually a couple of the flock gets spotted in the fracas, then it's their turn. And a few more gets spots and gets pecked to death, and more and more. Oh, a peckin' party can wipe out the whole flock in a matter of a few hours, buddy, I seen it. A mighty awesome sight. The only way to prevent it—with chickens—is to clip blinders on them. So's they can't see.”

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (SparkNotes Literature Guide)

“But the rest are even scared to open up and laugh. You know, that's the first thing that got me about this place, that there wasn't anybody laughing. I haven't heard a real laugh since I came through that door, do you know that? Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing.”

Knows Men Firsts Real Loses Laughing Doors Heard Havens Scared Do You Know Flew Cuckoos One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“Then - as he was talking - a set of tail-lights going past lit up McMurphy's face, and the windshield reflected an expression that was allowed only because he figured it'd be too dark for anybody in the car to see, dreadfully tired and strained and frantic, like there wasn't enough time left for something he had to do.”

Enough Light Past Faces Left Dark Talking Car Expression Tired Tails Lit Enough Time Frantic Time Left Mcmurphy

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition

“Marvelous wonders don't have to happen of a sudden, the way they do in the Arabian Nights. They can also take a long time, like crystals growing, or minds changing, or leaves turning. The trick is to keep an eye peeled, so they don't slip by unappreciated.”

Way Mind Long Happens Eye Night Wonder Growing Long Time Tricks Slips Marvelous Crystals Arabian Mind Changing Arabian Nights

Author:Ken Kesey

“No one's ever dared come out and say it before, but there's not a man among us that doesn't think it, that doesn't feel just as you do about her and the whole business - feel it somewhere down deep in his scared little soul.”

Thinking Men Feels Littles Soul Whole Scared Feels Just

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“I been silent so long now it’s gonna roar out of me like floodwaters and you think the guy telling this is ranting and raving my God; you think this is too horrible to have really happened, this is too awful to be the truth! But, please. It’s still hard for me to have a clear mind thinking on it. But it’s the truth even if it didn’t happen.”

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition

“turns me on so loud it's like no sound, everybody yelling at me hands over their ears from behind a glass wall, faces working around in talk circles but no sound from the mouths. my sound soaks up all other sound.”

Hands Faces Turns Sound Behinds Wall Mouths Ears Glasses Circles Loud Yelling Turn Me

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“There’s no doubt in my mind that McMurphy’s won, but I’m not sure what.”

Mind Doubt Not Sure No Doubt Mcmurphy

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“Memory whispers someplace in that jumbled machinery.”

Memories Machinery

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“All that five thousand kids lived in those five thousand houses, owned by guys that got off the train. The houses looked so much alike that, time and time again, the kids went home by mistake to different houses and different families. Nobody ever noticed.”

Different Home Kids Guy House Mistake Five Thousand Train Different Families

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“I listened to them fade away till all I could hear was my memory of the sound.”

Sound Memories Fades Fade Away

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“The world news might not be therapeutic.”

World Might News Therapeutic World News

Author:Ken Kesey

“The man who seeks revenge digs two graves.”

Men Two Revenge Graves

Book:Sometimes a Great Notion

Source: Sometimes a Great Notion

“More was revealed in a human face than a human being can bear face to face.”

Humans Faces Human Beings Bears Face To Face Human Faces

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“This world… belongs to the strong, my friend! The ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the weak.”

World Strong Existence This World My Friends Weak Stronger Ritual Human Spirit Flew Devouring Cuckoos Getting Stronger Rabbit Holes One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“You had a choice: you could either strain and look at things that appeared in front of you in the fog, painful as it might be, or you could relax and lose yourself”

Inspirational Looks Might Choices Loses Fronts Painful Relax Fog Strain Human Spirit Losing Yourself

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition

“But if the strength ain't real, I recall thinking the very last thing that day, before I finally passed out, then the weakness sure enough is. Weakness is true and real. I used to accuse the kid of faking his weakness. But faking proves the weakness is real. Or you wouldn't be so weak as to fake it. No, you can't ever fake being weak. You can only fake being strong. . .”

Ifs Thinking Real Enough Kids Lasts Used Strong Prove Weakness Weak Notion Fake Recalls

Book:Sometimes a Great Notion

Source: Sometimes a Great Notion

“You're making sense, old man, a sense of your own. You're not crazy the way they think. Yes...I see.”

Thinking Men Way Crazy Make Sense Old Man One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“He knows that there's no better way in the world to aggravate somebody who's trying to make it hard for you than by acting like you're not bothered.”

Knows World Way Trying Hard Acting Like You Bothered Better Ways Not Bothered One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“Billy here has been talkin' about slicin' his wrists again, so is there seven of you guys who'd like to join him and make it therapeutic?”

Has Beens Guy Seven Wrists Therapeutic

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition

“Man is certain of nothing but his ability to fail. It is the deepest faith we have, and the unbeliever- the blasphemer, the dissenter- will stimulate in us the most righteous of furies.”

Men Certain Ability Failing Reflection Righteous Fury Unbelievers

Book:Sometimes a Great Notion

Source: Sometimes a Great Notion

“She asked if we were calm enough for her to take off the cuffs, and McMurphy nodded. He had slumped over with his head hung and his elbows between his knees and looked completely exhausted--it hadn't occurred to me that it was just as hard for him to stand straight as it was for me.”

Ifs Hard Enough Calm Knees Hung Exhausted Elbows Cuffs Mcmurphy

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition

“I been away a long time.”

Author:Ken Kesey

About the Author

Born: September 17, 1935
Died: November 10, 2001
Known for: Author
Quotes: 199

Related Topics

Literature One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Thinking Ifs Men Cuckoos Knows People Way Mcmurphy

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's NestRelated source material

Sometimes a Great NotionRelated source material

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s NestRelated source material

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary EditionRelated source material

Kesey's Jail Journal: Cut the M************ LooseRelated source material

Kesey's garage saleRelated source material

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (SparkNotes Literature Guide)Related source material

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