"Once I was young and had so much more orientation and could talk with nervous intelligence about everything and with clarity and without as much literary preambling as this; in other words this is the story of an unself-confident man, at the same time of an egomaniac, naturally, facetious won't do -- just to start at the beginning and let the truth seep out..." -Jack Kerouac, Subterraneans

"I had a dream that I didn't want the lion to eat the lamb and the lion came up and lapped my face like a big puppy dog and then I picked up the lamb and it kissed me. This is the dream of the BeatGeneration." -Jack Kerouac, "Lamb, No Lion" PAGEANT MAGAZINE, February 1958.

(I don't remember where I read this excerpt! Help!) "At the table Amram tells stories about Kerouac and what the Village was like in the old days -- artists supporting each other, turning out for readings and performances, drinking and celebrating together. They drew strength from a sense of community. "Jack would pick out the most insecure, shyest person at a party and make a point of talking to that person," says Amram. "He had that kind of compassion, that interest in every person he met." I feel that same spirit in Amram."

"As for love, who have I ever loved? I am to insane to love anyone else but me, and I have decided to change." -Jack kerouac

"It aint watcha write, it's how atcha write it." - Jack Kerouac

"Hey bee, why are you staring at me? I'm not a flower." - Jack Kerouac

"... that is why i go on with my plan....expect nothing or commit ...but love everything -Jack Kerouac

"The writer is obligated to explore the entire range of experience... whether currently fashionable of not." - Jack Kerouac to anything...

"Literature is the tale that's told for no other reason but companionship." -Jack Kerouac

And don't you know that God is Pooh Bear? --Jack Kerouac

I'd rather be thin than famous, I don't wanna be fat... .Paste that in yr. Broadway show. -Jack Kerouac

"Fuck structure and grab your characters by the balls." - Jack Kerouac

"That one thing is what keeps us going. It's that one thing we'll never get." Jack Kerouac

"Like the endurance of a red star on the end of a cigarette, I feel life splits faster than scissors..." -Peter Orlovsky

"Live your lives out...nah, LOVE your lives out. At least when they come and stone you, you won't be living in a glass house..." Jack Kerouac

"My aunt once said the world would never find peace until men fell at their women's feet and asked forgiveness." - Jack, who else?

"I don't know, I don't care, and it doesn't make any difference." -Jack Kerouac (although I think we all say this)

"Dont drive so fast in the daytime" Jack Kerouac

"And so I came home to Golden Far Away, Twas on the horizon Every blessed day." --Jack Kerouac "Bus East"

"... Next time you come to the edge of a cliff and wonder whether you should jump or not, try jumping." -John Lennon

"be in love with yr life" -Jack Kerouac (from his "Belief and Technique")

"I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion." Jack Kerouac

"...And all the world became my playground" -Neal Cassady