Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac,
American novelist
1922 – 1969

Quotes by Jack Kerouac

One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.

Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends
and fads and popular opinions.

Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don’t be sorry.

The only truth is music.

My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them.

There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars.

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…

Don’t use the phone. People are never ready to answer it. Use poetry.

I don’t know, I don’t care, and it doesn’t make any difference.

It all ends in tears anyway.

I was surprised, as always, by how easy the act of leaving was, and how good it felt. The world was suddenly rich with possibility.

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.

Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.

Things are so hard to figure out when you live from day to day in this feverish and silly world.

What’s in store for me in the direction I don’t take?

It always makes me proud to love the world somehow- hate’s so easy compared.

Life must be rich and full of loving–it’s no good otherwise, no good at all, for anyone.

One man practicing kindness in the wilderness is worth all the temples this world pulls.

Finding Nirvana is like locating silence.

I’m writing this book because we’re all going to die.

As I grew older I became a drunk. Why? Because I like ecstasy of the mind.

Pain or love or danger makes you real again…

I feel guilty for being a member of the human race.

Don’t touch me, I’m full of snakes.

So shut up, live, travel, adventure, bless and don’t be sorry

We agreed to love each other madly.

Offer them what they secretly want and they of course immediately become panic-stricken.

There was nothing to talk about anymore. The only thing to do was go.

a sociable smile is nothing but a mouth full of teeth

Maybe that’s what life is… a wink of the eye and winking stars.

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

The page is long, blank, and full of truth. When I am through with it, it shall probably be long, full, and empty with words.

As far as I’m concerned the only thing to do is sit in a room and get drunk.

All human beings are also dream beings. Dreaming ties all mankind together.

Better to sleep in an uncomfortable bed free, than sleep in a comfortable bed unfree.

The beauty of things must be that they end.

There are worse things than being mad.

All he needed was a wheel in his hand and four on the road.

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.

Pretty girls make graves

Be in love with your life, every detail of it.

You’d be surprised how little I knew even up to yesterday