Top quotes by Ken Kesey

When we first broke into that forbidden box in the other dimension, we knew we had discovered something as surprising and powerful as the New World when Columbus came stumbling onto it. Votes: 36

No, my friend. We are lunatics from the hospital up the highway, psycho-ceramics, the cracked pots of mankind. Would you like me to decipher a Rorschach for you? Votes: 17

Allen Ginsberg is a tremendous warrior as time goes by. He's a warrior first and a poet second. Votes: 16

Loved. You can't use it in the past tense. Death does not stop that love at all. Votes: 16

Fascism wants Baptism coast to coast. Votes: 14

There's something about taking a plow and breaking new ground. It gives you energy. Votes: 13

Nowhere else in history has there ever been a flag that stands for the right to burn itself. This is the fractal of our flag. It stands for the right to destroy itself. Votes: 10

Marvelous wonders don't have to happen of a sudden, the way they do in the Arabian Nights. They can also take a long time, like crystals growing, or minds changing, or leaves turning. The trick is to keep an eye peeled, so they don't slip by unappreciated. Votes: 10

There's a lot of people who don't understand the circle crops in England. Pure enigma. Votes: 8

People don't want other people to get high, because if you get high, you might see the falsity of the fabric of the society we live in. Votes: 8

You don't lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case. Votes: 7

When you're around the whole Dead scene, they're there as a tribal thing; they're there as part of a rendezvous and a pow-wow. Votes: 7

Listen, wait, and be patient. Every shaman knows you have to deal with the fire that's in your audience's eye. Votes: 7

People think love is an emotion. Love is good sense. Votes: 6

When Shakespeare was writing, he wasn't writing for stuff to lie on the page; it was supposed to get up and move around. Votes: 6

You can't really be strong until you see a funny side to things. Votes: 6

The '60s aren't over; they won't be over until the Fat Lady gets high. Votes: 5

She asked if we were calm enough for her to take off the cuffs, and McMurphy nodded. He had slumped over with his head hung and his elbows between his knees and looked completely exhausted--it hadn't occurred to me that it was just as hard for him to stand straight as it was for me. Votes: 4

To be just without being mad (and the madder you get the madder you get), to be peaceful without being stupid, to be interested without being compulsive, to be happy without being hysterical... smoke grass. Votes: 3

But the more I read... after awhile... I begin to find they were all writing about the same thing, this same dull old here-today-gone-tomorrow scene... Shakespeare, Milton, Matthew Arnold, even Baudelaire, even this cat whoever he was that wrote Beowulf... the same scene for the same reasons and to the same end, whether it was Dante with his pit or Baudelaire with his pot... the same dull old scene... Votes: 3

The truth doesn't have to do with cruelty, the truth has to do with mercy. Votes: 2

He's got hands so long and white and dainty I think they carved each other out of soap, and sometimes they get loose and glide around in front of him free as two white birds until he notices them and traps them between his knees; it bothers him that he's got pretty hands. Votes: 2

The job is to seek mystery, evoke mystery, plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom. The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer. Votes: 2

I've enjoyed being a famous writer-except that every once in a while you have to write something. Votes: 2

If this glorious birth to death hassle is the only hassle we are ever to have ..if our grand exhilarating fight of life is such a tragically short little scrap anyway,compared to the eons of rounds before and after-then why should one want to relinquish even a few precious seconds of it? Votes: 2

See with your ears and hear with your eyes. Votes: 2

I see he had his shorts on under the towel all along.I think for a fact that she'd rather he'd of been stark naked under that towel than had on those shorts. She's glaring at those big white whales leaping round on his shorts in pure wordless outrage." Votes: 1

I sometimes have these spells of compulsive truth. But as Lady Macbeth would say, "The fit is momentary." Votes: 0

Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing. Votes: 0

I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismograph. Votes: 0

Men are forever eager to press drink upon those they consider their superiors, hoping thereby to eliminate that distinction between them.... And women, when confronted by superiors, substitute for drink the crippling liquor of their sex. Votes: 0

You've got to get out and pray to the sky to appreciate the sunshine; otherwise you're just a lizard standing there with the sun shining on you. Votes: 0

LSD lets you in on something. When you're tripping, the idea of race disappears; the idea of sex disappears; you don't even know what species you are sometimes. And I don't know of anybody who hasn't come back from that being more humane, more thoughtful, more understanding. Votes: 0

Anti-drug fanatics and cops are the criminals - it's like McCarthyism. They need someone to dislike to distract the public from the really important problems. Votes: 0

If you don't watch it people will force you one way or the other, into doing what they think you should do, or into just being mule-stubborn and doing the opposite out of spite. Votes: 0

The Republican consciousness has no integrity and it falls apart once you check it out. If you're a Christian, why would you want to fry this dude? Votes: 0

He knows that there's no better way in the world to aggravate somebody who's trying to make it hard for you than by acting like you're not bothered. Votes: 0

It is just as much an offense to take offense as it is to give offense. Votes: 0

You're making sense, old man, a sense of your own. You're not crazy the way they think. Yes...I see... Votes: 0

High high in the hills , high in a pine tree bed. She's tracing the wind with that old hand, counting the clouds with that old chant, Three geese in a flock one flew east one flew west one flew over the cuckoo's nest Votes: 0

Like a cartoon world, where the figures are flat and outlined in black, jerking through some kind of goofy story that might be real funny if it weren't for the cartoon figures being real guys... Votes: 0

Ritual is necessary for us to know anything. Votes: 0

Take what you can use and let the rest go by Votes: 0

All that five thousand kids lived in those five thousand houses, owned by guys that got off the train. The houses looked so much alike that, time and time again, the kids went home by mistake to different houses and different families. Nobody ever noticed. Votes: 0

You had a choice: you could either strain and look at things that appeared in front of you in the fog, painful as it might be, or you could relax and lose yourself Votes: 0

To Vik Lovell who told me dragons did not exist, then led me to their lairs ... Votes: 0

You can't really be strong until you can see a funny side to things. Votes: 0

I'd think, maybe he truly is something extraordinary. He's what he is, that's it. Maybe that makes him strong enough, being what he is. Votes: 0

In any given situation there will always be more dumb people than smart people. We ain't many! Votes: 0

That ain't me, that ain't my face. It wasn't even me when I was trying to be that face. I wasn't even really me them; I was just being the way I looked, the way people wanted. Votes: 0

turns me on so loud it's like no sound, everybody yelling at me hands over their ears from behind a glass wall, faces working around in talk circles but no sound from the mouths. my sound soaks up all other sound. Votes: 0

Society is what decides who's sane and who isn't, so you got to measure up. Votes: 0

He's the sort of guy that gets a laugh out of people. Votes: 0

All I know is this: nobody's very big in the first place, and it looks to me like everybody spends their whole life tearing everybody else down. Votes: 0

But I remember one thing: it wasn't me that started acting deaf, it was people that first started acting like I was too dumb to hear or see or say anything at all. Votes: 0

Good writing ain't necessarily good reading. Votes: 0

They can't tell so much about you if you got your eyes closed. Votes: 0

It's the truth, even if it didn't happen......if they don't exist, how can a man see them~? Votes: 0

Tricker the Squirrel is the best piece I ever wrote. It's intricate. Votes: 0

Luckily, I remembered something Malcolm Cowley had taught us at Stanford - perhaps the most important lesson a writing class (not a writer, understand, but a class) can ever learn. 'Be gentle with one another's efforts,' he often admonished us. 'Be kind and considerate with your criticism. Always remember that it's just as hard to write a bad book as it is to write a good book.' Votes: 0

The job of the writer is to kiss no ass, no matter how big and holy and white and tempting and powerful. Votes: 0

The secret of being a top-notch con man is being able to know what the mark wants, and how to make him think he's getting it. Votes: 0

When you love someone it is forever, or it was never really love at all. Votes: 0

He was in his chair in the corner, resting a second before he came out for the next round -- in a long line of next rounds. The thing he was fighting, you couldn't whip it for good. All you could do was keep on whipping it, till you couldn't come out anymore and somebody else had to take your place. Votes: 0

Me and Norman Mailer have talked about how hard it is in America to get better. Especially at writing. Votes: 0

I've been to too many Dead concerts. There've been smokin' holes where my memory used to be. Votes: 0

If you're a Conservative, why aren't you behind conserving the land? Votes: 0

The frontiers we broke into in the '60s are still largely unexplored. Votes: 0

The fundamentalists have taken the fun out of the mental. Votes: 0

Leary can get a part of my mind that's kind of rusted shut grinding again, just by being around him and talking. Votes: 0

he's finished with that; it's like an old clock that won't tell time but won't stop neither, with the hands bent out of shape and the face bare of numbers and the alarm bell rusted silent, an old worthless clock that just keeps ticking and cuckooing wit Votes: 0

Along the western slopes of the Oregon Coastal Range . . . come look: the hysterical crashing of tributaries as they merge into the Wakonda Auga River . . . Votes: 0

Alongside the statement about one man's poison being another man's high, one might as well add that one man's saint can be another man's sore and one man's hero can turn out to be that man's biggest hangup. Votes: 0

Always stay in your own movie. Votes: 0

Anesthetized time; nothing moves and everything is at once. Votes: 0

Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy. He knows there's a painful side; he knows my thumb smarts and his girlfriend has a bruised breast and the doctor is losing his glasses, but he won't let the pain blot out the humor no more'n he'll let the humor blot out the pain. Votes: 0

Billy here has been talkin' about slicin' his wrists again, so is there seven of you guys who'd like to join him and make it therapeutic? Votes: 0

But he wonât let the pain blot out the humor no moreân heâll let the humor blot out the pain. Votes: 0

But I remember one thing: it wasn't me that started acting deaf; it was people that first started acting like I was too dumb to hear or see or say anything at all Votes: 0

But I tried, didn't I? Goddamnit, at least I did that. Votes: 0

But if the strength ain't real, I recall thinking the very last thing that day, before I finally passed out, then the weakness sure enough is. Weakness is true and real. I used to accuse the kid of faking his weakness. But faking proves the weakness is real. Or you wouldn't be so weak as to fake it. No, you can't ever fake being weak. You can only fake being strong. . . Votes: 0

But if they don't exist, how can a man see them? Votes: 0

But it's the truth even if it didn't happen. Votes: 0

But the rest are even scared to open up and laugh. You know, that's the first thing that got me about this place, that there wasn't anybody laughing. I haven't heard a real laugh since I came through that door, do you know that? Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing. Votes: 0

But, gee," the other nurse says, "what on earth would MAKE a man want to do something like disrupt the ward for, Miss Ratched? What possible motive...?""You seem to forget, MISS Flinn, that this is an institution for the insane. Votes: 0

Don't say it...I've seen too many loves sundered by too much needless honesty. Votes: 0

For there is always a sanctuary more, a door that can never be forced, a last inviolable stronghold that can never be taken, whatever the attack; your vote can be taken, you name, you innards, or even your life, but that last stonghold can only be surrendered. And to surrender it for any reason other than love is to surrender love. Votes: 0

Good writin' ain't necessarily good readin'. Votes: 0

He knows that you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy. Votes: 0

He Who Marches Out Of Step Hears Another Drum Votes: 0

His whole body shakes with the strain as he tries to lift something he knows he can't lift, something everybody knows he can't lift. But, for just a second, when we hear the cement grind at our feet, we think, by golly, he might do it. Votes: 0

I been silent so long now itâs gonna roar out of me like floodwaters and you think the guy telling this is ranting and raving my God; you think this is too horrible to have really happened, this is too awful to be the truth! But, please. Itâs still hard for me to have a clear mind thinking on it. But itâs the truth even if it didnât happen. Votes: 0

I believe that a man should be... as big as he feels it in him to be! Votes: 0

I believe that with the advent of acid, we discovered a new way to think, and it has to do with piecing together new thoughts in your mind. Why is it that people think it's so evil ? What is it about it that scares people so deeply, even the guy that invented it, what is it ? Because they're afraid that there's more to reality than they have confronted. That there are doors that they're afraid to go in, and they don't want us to go in there either, because if we go in we might learn something that they don't know. And that makes us a little out of their control. Votes: 0

I don't think you fully understand the public, my friend; in this country, when something is out of order, then the quickest way to get it fixed is the best way. Votes: 0

I felt like you can write forever, but you have a short time to raise a family. And I think a family is a lot more important than writing. Votes: 0

I had to keep on acting deaf if i wanted to hear at all. Votes: 0

I lay in bed the night before the fishing trip and thought it over, about my being deaf, about the years of not letting on I heard what was said, and I wonder if I can ever act any other way again. But I remembered one thing: it wasn't me that started acting deaf; it was people that first started acting like I was too dumb to hear or see or say anything at all. Votes: 0

I listened to them fade away till all I could hear was my memory of the sound. Votes: 0

I used to think we were going to win in the '60s. Nixon went out and I thought we won. Votes: 0

I was raised a Christian and was a stone-faced acid head. Votes: 0

I'd take a look at my own self in the mirror and wonder how it was possible that anybody could manage such an enormous thing as being what he was. Votes: 0

If grass were legalized, it would help our drug problem enormously. Votes: 0

If you've got love in your heart, whatever you do from that moment out is likely to be right. If you've got that one true note ringing inside you, then whatever you do is going to be OK. Votes: 0

I'm so insane, I voted for Eisenhower. Oh yeah, well I'm so insane, I voted for Eisenhower TWICE! Votes: 0

It is bad to suppress laughter. It goes back down to your hips. Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing. Votes: 0

It isn't by getting out of the world that we become enlightened, but by getting into the worldâ¦by getting so tuned in that we can ride the waves of our existence and never get tossed because we become the waves. Votes: 0

I've found psychedelics to be keys to worlds that have always existed, that have to be talked about. Votes: 0

I've never seen crack or a lot of these new drugs. Don't know anything about them. I don't know what they do for you, or whether they do anything good for you or not. But I do still have a lot of faith in the spiritual purity of LSD and pot. Votes: 0

Living is the purpose of life, And meaning can be found therein. I finds thou. Thou becomes it. And it begins again. Votes: 0

Major part of the Southern California pop scene in the 60s "People think that love is an emotion. Love is good sense." Votes: 0

Man is certain of nothing but his ability to fail. It is the deepest faith we have, and the unbeliever- the blasphemer, the dissenter- will stimulate in us the most righteous of furies. Votes: 0

Memory whispers someplace in that jumbled machinery. Votes: 0

More was revealed in a human face than a human being can bear face to face. Votes: 0

Mr. Bibbit, you might warn this Mr. Harding that I'm so crazy I admit to voting for Eisenhower. Bibbit! You tell Mr. McMurphy I'm so crazy I voted for Eisenhower twice! And you tell Mr. Harding right back â he puts both hands on the table and leans down, his voice getting low â that I'm so crazy I plan to vote for Eisenhower again this November. Votes: 0

Never before did I realize that mental illness could have the aspect of power, power. Think of it: perhaps the more insane a man is, the more powerful he could become. Hitler an example. Fair makes the old brain reel, doesn't it? Votes: 0

No one's ever dared come out and say it before, but there's not a man among us that doesn't think it, that doesn't feel just as you do about her and the whole business - feel it somewhere down deep in his scared little soul. Votes: 0

No, that nurse ain't some kinda monster chicken, buddy, what she is is a ball-cutter. I've seen a thousand of 'em, old and young, men and women. Seen 'em all over the country and in the homes- people who try to make you weak so they can get you to toe the line, to follow their rules, to live like they want you to. And the best way to do this, to get you to knuckle under, is to weaken you by gettin' you where it hurts the worst. Votes: 0

Now, youâre either on the bus or youâre off the bus. Votes: 0

Ocean, Ocean I'll beat you in the end. Votes: 0

Of offering more than what I can deliver, I have a bad habit, it is true. But I have to offer more than I can deliver, To be able to deliver what I do. Votes: 0

Plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom. Votes: 0

Sometimes I looked at them and sometimes they looked at me, but rarely did we look at one another. Votes: 0

Sometimes the need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer. Votes: 0

Take what you can use and let the rest go by. Votes: 0

The answer is never the answer. What's really interesting is the mystery. Votes: 0

The answer is never the answer. What's really interesting is the mystery. If you seek the mystery instead of the answer, you'll always be seeking. I've never seen anybody really find the answer. They think they have, so they stop thinking. But the job is to seek mystery, evoke mystery, plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom. The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer. Votes: 0

The best of all possible cages.' Ben stepped back to regard the job with a sad smile. 'What more can one ask? Votes: 0

The dead's dead ... get 'em in the ground and look to the live ones. Votes: 0

The flock gets sight of a spot of blood on some chicken and they all go to peckin' at it, see, till they rip the chicken to shreds, blood and bones and feathers. But usually a couple of the flock gets spotted in the fracas, then it's their turn. And a few more gets spots and gets pecked to death, and more and more. Oh, a peckin' party can wipe out the whole flock in a matter of a few hours, buddy, I seen it. A mighty awesome sight. The only way to prevent itâwith chickensâis to clip blinders on them. So's they can't see. Votes: 0

The Grateful Dead are faster than light drive. Votes: 0

The Haight is just a place; the '60s was a spirit. Votes: 0

The man who seeks revenge digs two graves. Votes: 0

The most work he did on [the urinals] was to run a brush once or twice apiece, singing some song as loud as he could in time to the swishing brush; then he'd splash in some Clorox and he'd be through. ... And when the Big Nurse...came in to check McMurphy's cleaning assignment personally, she brought a little compact mirror and she held it under the rim of the bowls. She walked along shaking her head and saying, "Why, this is an outrage... an outrage..." at every bowl. McMurphy sidled right along beside her, winking down his nose and saying in answer, "No; that's a toilet bowl...a TOILET bowl. Votes: 0

The raw materials of reality without the glue of time are materials adrift and reality is as meaningless as the balsa parts of a model airplane scattered to the wind. Votes: 0

The reverberation often exceeds through silence the sound that sets it off; the reaction occasionally outdoes by way of repose the event that stimulated it; and the past not uncommonly takes a while to happen, and some long time to figure out. Votes: 0

The stars up close to the moon were pale; they got brighter and braver the farther they got out of the circle of light ruled by the giant moon Votes: 0

The world news might not be therapeutic. Votes: 0

Then the trembling starts to get worse. This must be how they begin, he thinks. Freak-outs. Breakdowns. Crack-ups. Eventually shut-ins and finally cross-offs. But first the cover-up . . . Votes: 0

Thenâas he was talkingâa set of tail-lights going past lit up McMurphy's face, and the windshield reflected an expression that was allowed only because he figured it'd be too dark for anybody in the car to see, dreadfully tired and strained and frantic, like there wasn't enough time left for something he had to do... Votes: 0

There are going to be times when we can't wait for somebody. Now, you're either on the bus or off the bus. Votes: 0

There are going to be times when we can't wait for somebody. Now, you're either on the bus or off the bus. If you're on the bus, and you get left behind, then you'll find it again. If you're off the bus in the first place â then it won't make a damn. Votes: 0

Thereâs no doubt in my mind that McMurphyâs won, but Iâm not sure what. Votes: 0

There's no disgrace in failing, lad, Though friends and foes deride; In fact, a failure's not so bad As never having tried. Votes: 0

There's shames a man can never reason away, though he looks back and piles up reasons over them forty dozen deep. And maybe those are the shames a man never should reason away. Votes: 0

There've been a lot more people hurt on astro-turf than grass. Votes: 0

They did type me as a horror writer, but I have been able to do all sorts of things within that framework. Votes: 0

Things you think you're saying for the first time ever, have been said better before by Shakespeare, though they may need saying again. Votes: 0

This world belongs to the strong, my friend! The ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the weak. We must face up to this. No more than right that it should be this way. We must learn to accept it as a law of the natural world. The rabbits accept their role in the ritual and recognize the wolf as the strong. In defense, the rabbit becomes sly and frightened and elusive and he digs holes and hides when the wolf is about. And he endures, he goes on. He knows his place. He most certainly doesn't challenge the wolf to combat. Now, would that be wise? Would it? Votes: 0

This worldâ¦ belongs to the strong, my friend! The ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the weak. Votes: 0

Time overlaps itself. A breath breathed from a passing breeze is not the whole wind, neither is it just the last of what has passed and the first of what will come, but is more--let me see--more like a single point plucked on a single strand of a vast spider web of winds, setting the whole scene atingle. That way; it overlaps ... as prehistoric ferns grow from bathtub planters. Votes: 0

To hell with facts! We need stories. Votes: 0

Truth doesn't run on time like a commuter train. Votes: 0

We made love. How pedestrian the words look-trite, worn, practically featureless with use-but how can one better describe that which happens when it happens? That creation? That magic blending? I might say we became figures in a mesmerized dance before the rocking talisman of the moon, starting slow, so slow... a pair of feathers drifting through clear liquid substance of sky... gradually accelerating, faster and faster and finally into photon existence of pure light... as my whole straining body burst like fluid electricity into hers. Votes: 0

We think weâre in the present, but we aren't. The present we know is only a movie of the past. Votes: 0

We'd just shared the last beer and slung the empty can out the window at a stop sign and were just waiting back to get the feel of the day, swimming in that kind of tasty drowsiness that comes over you after a day of going hard at something you enjoy doing -- half sunburned and half drunk and keeping awake only because you wanted to savor the taste as long as you could. Votes: 0

What can you pay for the way a man lives? What can you pay for what a man is? Votes: 0

What do you think you are, for Chrissake, crazy or somethin'? Well you're not! You're not! You're no crazier than the average asshole out walkin' around on the streets and that's it. Votes: 0

What makes people so impatient is what I can't figure; all the guy had to do was wait. Votes: 0

What the Chronics are - or most of us - are machines with flaws inside that can't be repaired, flaws born in, or flaws beat in over so many years of the guy running head-on into solid things that by the time the hospital found him he was bleeding rust in some vacant lot. Votes: 0

What we hoped was that we could stop the coming end of the world. Votes: 0

You can count how many seeds are in the apple, but not how many apples are in the seed. Votes: 0

You can't blame the President for the state of the country, it's always the poets' fault. You can't expect politicians to come up with a vision, they don't have it in them. Poets have to come up with the vision and they have to turn it on so it sparks and catches hold. Votes: 0

You don't plow under the corn because the seed was planted with a neighbor's shovel. Votes: 0

You seem to forget, Miss Flinn, that this is an institution for the insane. Votes: 0

You, and in fact quite a lot of your generation, have in some way been exiled from that particular sanctuary. It's become almost impossible for someone to "go mad" in the classical sense. At one time people conveniently "went mad" and were never heard from again. Like a character in a romantic novel. But now you are too hip to yourself on a psychological level. You all are too intimate with too many of the symptoms of insanity to be caught completely off your guard. Votes: 0

Youâre just a young kid. What are you doinâ here? You oughta be out in a convertible, whyâ¦ bird-dogginâ chicks and banginâ beaver. What are ya doinâ here, for Christâs sake? Whatâs funny about that? Jesus, I mean, you guys do nothinâ but complain about how you canât stand it in this place here and then you havenât got the guts just to walk out! Votes: 0

Your trouble is, you keep trying to unscrew the unscrutable. Votes: 0

Since we don't know where we're going, we have to stick together in case someone gets there. Votes: 0

A sound of cornered-animal fear and hate and surrender and defiance . . . like the last sound the treed and shot and falling animal makes as the dogs get him, when he finally doesn't care about anything but himself and his dying. Votes: 0

I been away a long time. Votes: 0

Top quotes by Ken Kesey

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