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Jack Kerouac

116 quotesNovelist · Born Mar 12, 1922 · Died Oct 21, 1969 · United States Of America · Male

Jack Kerouac (/ˈkɛruˌæk/ or /ˈkɛrəˌwæk/, born Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969) was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his method of spontaneous prose. Thematically, his work covers topics such as Catholic spirituality, jazz, promiscuity, Buddhism, drugs, poverty, and travel. He became an underground celebrity and, with other beats, a progenitor of the hippie movement, although he remained antagonistic toward some of its politically radical elements. In 1969, aged 47, Kerouac died from internal bleeding due to long-term alcohol abuse. Since his death, Kerouac's literary prestige has grown, and several previously unseen works have been published. All of his books are in print today, including The Town and the City, On the Road, Doctor Sax, The Dharma Bums, Mexico City Blues, The Subterraneans, Desolation Angels, Visions of Cody, The Sea Is My Brother, and Big Sur. 2Biography 3Early life and adolescence Jack Kerouac was born on March 12, 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts, to French Canadian parents, Léo-Alcide Kéroack (1899-1946) and Gabrielle-Ange Lévesque (1895-1973). There is some confusion surrounding his name, partly because of variations on the spelling of Kerouac, and because of Kerouac's own statement of his name as Jean-Louis Lebris de Keroua

All Kerouac (23)Misfits (14)Life (13)Love (12)Lost Novels (9)travel (9)Happiness (5)Nature (5)Tears (4)Explore (4)Madness (4)Existence (3)Wonder (3)Simplicity (3)Future (3)

From “The Dharma Bums”

Pain or love or danger makes you real again...

Feelings Reality feeling alive emotions Living

Happy. Just in my swim shorts, barefooted, wild-haired, in the red fire dark, singing, swigging wine, spitting, jumping, running—that's the way to live. All alone and free in the soft sands of the beach by the sigh of the sea out there, with the Ma-Wink fallopian virgin warm stars reflecting on the…

Happiness Simplicity Alone Free Feeling

From “Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings”

My eyes were glued on life and they were full of tears.

Life Pain Sadness Tears

From “Lonesome Traveler”

The happiness consists in realizing that it is all a great strange dream.

Happiness Being Happy happiness is a strange dream happiness is a dream strange dream

From “On the Road”

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved.

Others Madness Life

I believed in a good home, in sane and sound living, in good food, good times, work, faith and hope. I have always believed in these things. It was with some amazement that I realized I was one of the few people in the world who really believed in these things without going around making a dull…

Life Goodness Home Faith Nothing

'I just won't sleep,' I decided. There were so many other interesting things to do.

Sleep Life Excitement

I tried to tell her how excited I was about life and the things we could do together; saying that, and planning to leave Denver in two days. She turned away wearily. We lay on our backs, looking at the ceiling and wondering what God had wrought when He made life so sad.

Life Wonder God Sad

My whole wretched life swam before my weary eyes, and I realized no matter what you do it's bound to be a waste of time in the end so you might as well go mad.

Life Madness Time

I woke up as the sun was reddening; and that was the one distinct time in my life, the strangest moment of all, when I didn't know who I was—I was far away from home, haunted and tired with travel, in a cheap hotel room I'd never seen, hearing the hiss of steam outside, and the creak of the old wood…

Wonder Life lost haunting

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…

Madness Wonder Life Dreaming Emptiness

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…

Mad live Life burn Experience

From “Satori in Paris & Pic”

I'm a wretch. But I love, love.

Wretch Love Life

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