Jack Kerouac: Trending quotes (page 2)

“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

Source: On the Road: The Original Scroll

Life , Time , Madness

“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.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Not a Kerouac quote, but by Jon Krakauer, from his nonfiction book Into the Wild (1996).
Misattributed
Source: On the Road

World

“Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.”

Jack Kerouac

This is not a quote by Kerouac. It's a quote by CBS broadcaster Charles Kuralt who used to present a TV news segment called 'On the Road' (which is probably how the confusion arose). This particular statement by Kuralt was made in May 1996 to students of Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19960527&id=yf8yAAAAIBAJ&sjid=yQcGAAAAIBAJ&pg=3106,5606314
Misattributed

“The best teacher is experience and not through someone's distorted point of view.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Misattributed
Source: Often attributed to Kerouac's On the Road, the quote cannot be found in that book, nor in any of Kerouac's other published works.

Teachers

“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 book On the Road

Part Two, Ch. 8
Source: On the Road (1957)

Goodbye , People , World , Feeling

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!"”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Part One, Ch. 1
On the Road (1957)
Context: They danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!"

People , Star , Time , Madness

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

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: 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. I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Part Two, Ch. 4
On the Road (1957)

Star , Night

“Soon I'll find the right words, they'll be very simple.”

Jack Kerouac book The Dharma Bums

Some of the Dharma (1997)
Source: Sometimes paraphrased as "One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple" or "Someday I will find the right words … ", and sometimes misattributed to The Dharma Bums rather than to Some of the Dharma.

“My witness is the empty sky.”

Jack Kerouac

Some of the Dharma (1997)

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

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

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

Jack Kerouac

Not a Kerouac quote, but by Allen Ginsberg in his journal of 30 July 1947. Published in The Book of Martyrdom and Artifice, page 199.
Misattributed

Failure , Passion

“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

Source: On the Road: The Original Scroll

Dreams , Star

“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 book On the Road

Variant: I wished I was on the same bus as her. A pain stabbed my heart as it did everytime I saw a girl I loved who was going the opposite direction in this too-big world of ours.
Source: On the Road

Love , Pain , World , Girl

“The happiness consists in realizing that it is all a great strange dream.”

Jack Kerouac book Lonesome Traveler

Lonesome Traveler (1960)

Dreams , Happiness

“Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together; sophistication demands that they submit to sex immediately without proper preliminary talk. Not courting talk — real straight talk about souls, for life is holy and every moment is precious.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

Life , Sadness , Sex , Soul

“I don't know, I don't care, and it doesn't make any difference.”

Jack Kerouac

“What's in store for me in the direction I don't take?”