“All life is but a skull-bone and A rack of ribs through which we keep passing food & fuel - just so’s we can burn so furious beautiful.”— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com
“I still doubt if they know what’s good: they only know what’s wrong, like me. Their dreams are beautiful, but insufficient, improbable, and most of all short of the mark.”— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com
“And so I measure things in the light of their imperfection , or wrong ; on that basis , I can say what is not good, but I refuse to dawdle about what is supposed good.”— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com
“What wrong was there in treating his own life, within the bounds of moral conscience, as he chose and as he freely wished?”— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com
“They laughed raucously and proceeded on down the street. From then on, Wesley was aware of only three things: that he drank two more enormous draughts from the bottle; that he was in New York at night, because they were walking in a steep canyon between tall corniced buildings that leaned crazily, a…”— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com
“[He] seemed at home and content now they were sailing, as though leaving the port meant the cessation of all his worries, and heading out to sea a new era of peace and amenity.”— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com
“Dreams were so irrational, so gray with a nameless terror — and yet, too, so haunting and beautiful.”— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com
“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.”— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com
“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. Learning for instance, to eat when he’s hungry and sleep when he’s sleepy.”— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com
“Better to sleep in an uncomfortable bed free, than sleep in a comfortable bed unfree.”— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com
“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 midd…”— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com
“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.”— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com
“I was surprised, as always, be how easy the act of leaving was, and how good it felt. The world was suddenly rich with possibility.”— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com
“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.”— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com
“What is that 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.”— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com