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Quote by Jack Kerouac

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On the Road

Considered a cornerstone of the Beat Generation, this novel follows the adventures of a young man and his friends across the United States in a quest for meaning and experience. more

Author

Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac, born on March 12, 1922, in Lowell, Massachusetts, was an influential American novelist. Known for his autobiographical novels and beat literature, his most famous work is 'On the Road'. Kerouac's writings had a profound impact on American culture in the 1960s. more

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“Here the earth, as if to prove its immensity, empties itself. Gertrude Stein said: 'In the United States there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is. That is what makes America what it is.' The uncluttered stretches of the American West and the deserted miles of roads force a lone traveler to pay attention to them by leaving him isolated in them. This squander of land substitutes a sense of self with a sense of place by giving him days of himself until, tiring of his own small compass, he looks for relief to the bigness outside -- a grandness that demands attention not just for its scope, but for its age, its diversity, its continual change. The isolating immensity reveals what lies covered in places noisier, busier, more filled up. For me, what I saw revealed was this (only this): a man nearly desperate because his significance had come to lie within his own narrow ambit.”

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“It was easier to trust Siddhartha when he was a stranger. It was easier to trust him when he didn’t talk to me. It was easier with the distance. On this trip, when things will be real, and he’ll be in close proximity, I will not be able to make him the dream angel of my life. On this trip, I’ll have to see the real him, whoever he is, maybe just the opposite of what I imagined, maybe abusive, or a fraud, or a pervert. I don’t know, but now I’m afraid maybe after this trip, when I’ll see the real him, maybe he’ll take away from me the whole idea of Siddhartha I have in my mind.”

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“The moon, almost full, shines high in the sky in front of me. I roll down the window and rest my arm on top of the door frame. The night air blowing in softly through the open window feels cool on my face. For the moment, all seems right with the world.”

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