Ken Kesey: Trending quotes

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Ken Kesey: 206 quotes6 likes

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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…”

Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“More was revealed in a human face than a human being can bear face to face.”

Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“But I tried though," he says. "Goddammit, I sure as hell did that much, now, didn't I?”

Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962), Ch. 11

“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.”

Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962), Ch. 17
Context: Later, hiding in the latrine from the black boys, 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.

“But at least I tried”

Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“The world news might not be therapeutic.”

Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“They wouldn't be so cocky if they knew what me and thehave going.”

Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“The fundamentalists have taken the fun out of the mental.”

“Memory whispers someplace in that jumbled machinery.”

Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“This world… belongs to the strong, my friend! The ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the weak.”

Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“Sometimes I looked at them and sometimes they looked at me, but rarely did we look at one another.”

“Take what you can use and let the rest go by.”

Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“The man who seeks revenge digs two graves.”

“There's something about what we're doing, [which] is that we're meant to lose… every time! We make these foires, write these books and perform this music, but the big juggernaut of civilization continues and we've been kind of brushed to the side, but I think all through history there's been these kind of divine losers that just take a deep breath and go ahead—knowing that society's not going to understand it—and not even caring, because they're having a good time.”

Magic Trip, (2011)

“When people ask me what I think is my best work, it's the bus. There're lots of books, but there's only one bus.”

Trip of a Lifetime (1999)

“I can't help it. I was born a miscarriage. I had so many insults I died. I was born dead. I can't help it…. I'm tired.”

Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962), Ch. 5

“God… your book is beautiful!”

To Peter Reich on his memoir: A Book of Dreams about his early life and his father Wilhelm Reich.