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Jack Kerouac Quotes

Total quotes: 53
“There was nothing to talk about anymore. The only thing to do was go.”
— Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Tagged: no talking, actions, Journey
“Something great is about to happen to me: I’m about to love somebody very much.”
— Jack Kerouac, Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac 1947-1954
Tagged: Positivity, Optimism, Loving Someone, Love
“Don’t tell them too much about your soul.
They’re waiting for just that.”
— Jack Kerouac, Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac 1947-1954
Tagged: Soul, self
“I looked up at the sky; the pure, wonderful stars were still there, burning.”
— Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Tagged: Amusement, Night Sky, Gaze, Wonders of Nature
“The air was soft, the stars so fine, the promise of every cobbled alley so great, that I thought I was in a dream.”
— Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Tagged: travel, Explore, promises, Dreams
“The only truth is music….Music blends with the heartbeat universe and we forget the brain beat.”
— Jack Kerouac, Desolation Angels
Tagged: Music, Jack Kerouac
“Goddammit everybody in the world wants an explanation for your acts and for your very being.”
— Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Tagged: explanations, Expectations, Impression, Action, Existence
“I forgave everybody, I gave up, I got drunk.”
— Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Tagged: forgiveness, Giving Up, Drunk
“I don't know, I don't care, and it doesn't make any difference.’”
— Jack Kerouac
“I hope you get where you’re going, and be happy when you do it.”
— Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Tagged: Happiness, Dream, aspiration, Hope
“Down on the lake rosy reflections of celestial vapor appeared, and I said, 'God, I love you' and looked to the sky and really meant it. 'I have fallen in love with you, God. Take care of us all, one way or the other.' To the children and the innocent it's all the same.”
— Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Tagged: God, Nature, Love
“Be in love with your life, every detail of it.”
— Jack Kerouac, Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters 1940-1956
Tagged: Love, Passion, Acceptance, Self-Love, Appreciation, Contentment
“There was nowhere to go, but everywhere…”
— Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Tagged: Traveler, Journey, Going Out, Traveling
“Forgive everyone for your own sins
And be sure to tell them
You love them which you do.”
— Jack Kerouac, Mexico City Blues: 242 Choruses
Tagged: Forgiving, forgiveness, Expressing Love, poem, Poetry
“The best teacher is experience and not through someone's distorted point of view.”
— Jack Kerouac, via Wikiquote
Tagged: Experience, Learning, Teach
“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.”
— Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Tagged: Life, Madness, Time
“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.”
— Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Tagged: Confused, Night
“'I just won't sleep,' I decided. There were so many other interesting things to do.”
— Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Tagged: Sleep, Life, Excitement
“And I realize that no matter where I am, whether in a little room full of thought, or in this endless universe of stars and mountains, it’s all in my mind.”
— Jack Kerouac, Lonesome Traveler
Tagged: travel, Home Is A Feeling, Illusion, Awareness, Perspective, Existence
“Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that god damn mountain.”
— Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Tagged: travel, Wanderlust, Adventure, Lust For Life, Writers
“Because he had no place he could stay in without getting tired of it and because there was nowhere to go but everywhere, keep rolling under the stars...”
— Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Tagged: travel, Stars, Leaving
“Ah, life is a gate, a way, a path to Paradise anyway, why not live for fun and joy and love or some sort of girl by a fireside, why not go to your desire and LAUGH”
— Jack Kerouac, Big Sur: (Penguin Ink)
Tagged: Kerouac, Misfits
“There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars.”
— Jack Kerouac, On the Road: The Original Scroll (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Tagged: Kerouac, Misfits
“Better to sleep in an uncomfortable bed free, than sleep in a comfortable bed unfree.”
— Jack Kerouac, On the Road: The Original Scroll (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Tagged: Kerouac, Misfits
“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, The Sea Is My Brother: The Lost Novel
Tagged: Lost Novels, Kerouac
“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, The Sea Is My Brother: The Lost Novel
Tagged: Lost Novels, Kerouac
“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, The Sea Is My Brother: The Lost Novel
Tagged: Lost Novels, Kerouac
“It was like the imminent arrival of Gargantuan, preparations had to be made to widen the gutters of Denver and foreshorten certain laws to fit his suffering bulk and bursting ecstasies.”
— Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Tagged: Beat, Writing, Denver, Writers, Partying
“[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, The Sea Is My Brother: The Lost Novel
Tagged: Lost Novels, Kerouac
“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, The Sea Is My Brother: The Lost Novel
Tagged: Lost Novels, Kerouac
“The desk in the room, near the bed, with a good light, midnight till dawn, a drink when you get tired, preferably at home, but if you have no home, make a home out of your hotel room or motel room or pad: peace.”
— Jack Kerouac, The Art of Fiction No. 41
Tagged: Writing Routines
“Pain or love or danger makes you real again...”
— Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Tagged: Feelings, Reality, feeling alive, emotions, Living, Life
“We agreed to love each other madly.”
— Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Tagged: Love, Madness
“An awful realization that I have been fooling myself all my life thinking there was a next thing to do to keep the show going and actually I'm just a sick clown and so is everybody else. All my tricks laid bare, even the realization that they're laid bare itself laid bare as a lotta bunk.”
— Jack Kerouac, Big Sur
Tagged: Let Go, Nature
“Do not haunt my soul; I have done well forgetting you.”
— Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Tagged: Searching, Coming Back, Forgotten, Soul
“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”
— Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Tagged: Words, Simple
“It all ends in tears anyway.”
— Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Tagged: Tears, End, Endings
“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, The Dharma Bums
Tagged: Kerouac, Misfits
“What a horror it would have been if the world was real.”
— Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Tagged: Kerouac, Misfits
“I love life’s casual beauty - I fear its awful strength.”
— Jack Kerouac, The Sea Is My Brother: The Lost Novel
Tagged: Lost Novels, Kerouac
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