Jack Kerouac

(12 March 1922 - 21 October 1969) American writer, poet, and artist; born Jean-Louis Lebris Kerouac

See also: On The Road, The Dharma Bums, and Maggie Cassidy

= Sourced =

Every now and then a clear harmonic cry gave new suggestions of a tune that would someday be the only tune in the world and would raise men's souls to joy.
- On The Road (1957)
The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!"
- On The Road (1957)

= Attributed =

A man who allows wild passion to arise within, himself burns his heart, then after burning adds the wind that thereto which ignites the fire again, or not, as the case may be.
A pain stabbed my heart as it did every time I saw a girl I loved who was going the opposite direction in this too-big world.
All human beings are also dream beings. Dreaming ties all mankind together.
All is well, practice kindness, heaven is nigh.
All our best men are laughed at in this nightmare land.
As early pioneers in the knowing, that when you lose your reason, you attain highest perfect knowing.
But why think about that when all the golden land's ahead of you and all kinds of unforeseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you're alive to see?
Colleges being nothing but grooming schools for the middleclass 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 is 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...
Everything is going to the beat — It's the beat generation, it be-at, it's the beat to keep, it's the beat of the heart, it's being beat and down in the world and like oldtime lowdown and like in ancient civilizations the slave boatmen rowing galleys to a beat and servants spinning pottery to a beat...
Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.
I felt like lying down by the side of the trail and remembering it all. The woods do that to you, they always look familiar, long lost, like the face of a long-dead relative, like an old dream, like a piece of forgotten song drifting across the water, most of all like golden eternities of past childhood or past manhood and all the living and the dying and the heartbreak that went on a million years ago and the clouds as they pass overhead seem to testify (by their own lonesome familiarity) to this feeling. Ecstacy, even, I felt, with flashes of sudden remembrance, and feeling sweaty and drowsy I felt like sleeping and dreaming in the grass.
I hope it is true that a man can die and yet not only live in others but give them life, and not only life but that great consciousness of life... (November 1951)
I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another till I drop. This is the night, what it does to you. I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.
I loved the way she said "LA"; I love the way everybody says "LA" on the Coast; it's their one and only golden town when all is said and done.
If moderation is a fault, then indifference is a crime.
It is not my fault that certain so-called bohemian elements have found in my writings something to hang their peculiar beatnik theories on.
I want to work in revelations, not just spin silly tales for money. I want to fish as deep down as possible into my own subconscious in the belief that once that far down, everyone will understand because they are the same that far down.
Literature is no longer Necessary Teaching is left..
Mankind is like dogs, not gods— as long as you don't get mad they'll bite you— but stay mad and you'll never be bitten. Dogs don't respect humility and sorrow.
Maybe that's what life is...a wink of the eye and winking stars.
My witness is the empty sky.
New York gets god-awful cold in the winter but there's a feeling of wacky comradeship somewhere in some streets.
No man should go through life without once experiencing healthy, even bored solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself and thereby learning his true and hidden strength.
"Now you understand the Oriental passion for tea," said Japhy. "Remember that book I told you about the first sip is joy, the second is gladness, the third is serenity, the fourth is madness, the fifth is ecstasy."
Offer them what they secretly want and they of course immediately become panic-stricken.
Somewhere along the line I knew there'd be girls, visions, everything; somewhere along the line the pearl would be handed to me.
The air was soft, the stars so fine, the promise of every cobbled alley so great that I thought I was in a dream.
The charging restless mute unvoiced road keening in a seizure of tarpaulin power.
The tree looks like a dog, barking at heaven.
There's your Karma ripe as peaches.
We should be wondering tonight, "Is there a world?" But I could go and talk on 5, 10, 20 minutes about is there a world, because there is really no world, cause sometimes I'm walkin’ on the ground and I see right through the ground. And there is no world. And you'll find out.
We turned at a dozen paces, for love is a duel, and looked up at each other for the last time.
What is the feeling when you're driving away from people, and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? —it's the too huge world vaulting us, and it's good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.
Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?
Write in recollection and amazement for yourself.
You never die enough to cry.

 
 You can't fight City Hall. It keeps changing its name.

= External links =

Brief bio at Official Kerouac site

Kerouac on the Web many links to Kerouac resources