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Ken Kesey

Ken Kesey Quotes

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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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Famous Ken Kesey Quotes

“I felt like you can write forever, but you have a short time to raise a family. And I think a family is a lot more important than writing.”

Thinking Writing Important Felt Forever Like You Raises Short Time

Author:Ken Kesey

“People think love is an emotion. Love is good sense.”

People Thinking Love Philosophy Feelings Literature Love Is Emotion Emotional Educational Good Sense

Author:Ken Kesey

“Then the trembling starts to get worse. This must be how they begin, he thinks. Freak-outs. Breakdowns. Crack-ups. Eventually shut-ins and finally cross-offs. But first the cover-up . . .”

Thinking Firsts Crosses Cracks Freak Breakdown Trembling Cover Ups

Author:Ken Kesey

“What do you think you are, for Chrissake, crazy or somethin'? Well you're not! You're not! You're no crazier than the average asshole out walkin' around on the streets and that's it.”

Thinking Wells Crazy Streets Average Flew Cuckoos One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Author:Ken Kesey

“He's got hands so long and white and dainty I think they carved each other out of soap, and sometimes they get loose and glide around in front of him free as two white birds until he notices them and traps them between his knees; it bothers him that he's got pretty hands.”

Thinking Long Two Sometimes Hands White Fronts Bird Bother Knees Traps Soap Dainty White Birds

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“The answer is never the answer. What's really interesting is the mystery. If you seek the mystery instead of the answer, you'll always be seeking. I've never seen anybody really find the answer, but they think they have. So they stop thinking. But the job is to seek mystery, evoke mystery, plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom. The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer.”

Ifs Thinking Needs Motivational Jobs Grows Answers Interesting Greater Mystery Strange Garden Plant Seeking Really Interesting Evoke

Author:Ken Kesey

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“Major part of the Southern California pop scene in the 60s "People think that love is an emotion. Love is good sense."”

People Thinking Life Love Is Emotion Scene Majors Pops California Southern Good Sense Southern California

Author:Ken Kesey

“I believe that with the advent of acid, we discovered a new way to think, and it has to do with piecing together new thoughts in your mind. Why is it that people think it's so evil ? What is it about it that scares people so deeply, even the guy that invented it, what is it ? Because they're afraid that there's more to reality than they have confronted. That there are doors that they're afraid to go in, and they don't want us to go in there either, because if we go in we might learn something that they don't know. And that makes us a little out of their control.”

People Ifs Thinking Knows Way Want Mind Believe Littles Reality Might Together Guy Evil I Believe Doors Drug Scare New Ways Want U Acid Psychedelic New Thought Advent Lsd

Author:Ken Kesey

“I used to think we were going to win in the '60s. Nixon went out and I thought we won.”

Thinking Used Winning Apology

Author:Ken Kesey

“Things you think you're saying for the first time ever, have been said better before by Shakespeare, though they may need saying again.”

Thinking Needs Firsts May Has Beens Said First Time

Author:Ken Kesey

“We think we’re in the present, but we aren't. The present we know is only a movie of the past.”

Thinking Knows Past Kool Aid

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 Flew World Firsts Guy Might Laughing Looks Want Writing Long

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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