Jack Kerouac citations

Page 3

“N'utilisez pas le téléphone. Les gens ne sont jamais prêts à y répondre. Utilisez la poésie.”

“Comme toujours, j’étais surpris de voir combien c’était facile de partir et combien réconfortante en était la sensation. Le monde était soudainement riche de possibilités.”

“Bientôt, je trouverai les bons mots, ils seront très simples.”

“Les grands exploits ne sont pas accomplis par ceux qui succombent aux tendances, à la mode et suivent les opinions populaires.”

“Toute ma vie misérable défilait devant mes yeux fatigués, et j'ai réalisé que quoi que l'on fasse, ce sera toujours une perte de temps, alors autant devenir fou.”

“et je trainais derrière eux comme je l’ai fait toute ma vie derrière les gens qui m’intéressent”

“Nous étions perchés sur le toit de l´Amérique, et ne savions que gueuler - pour atteindre, qui sait? l´autre cóté de la nuit, l´Est, au-delá des plaines, ou un vieillard chenu était peut-ětre en route vers nous, porteur de la Parole, sur le point d´arriver pour nous faire taire.”

“Il pouvait à peine placer un mot tellement ça l'excitait de vivre.”

“La seule chose après laquelle nous languissons durant notre existence, qui nous fait soupirer et gémir et souffrir toutes sortes de doucereuses nausées, c'est le souvenir de quelque félicité perdue que l'on a sans doute éprouvée dans le sein maternel et qui ne saurait se reproduire (mais nous nous refusons à l'admettre) que dans la mort. Mais qui souhaite mourir?”

“This is the story of America. Everybody's doing what they think they're supposed to do.”

“Soon it got dusk, a grapy dusk, a purple dusk over tangerine groves and long melon fields; the sun the color of pressed grapes, slashed with burgandy red, the fields the color of love and Spanish mysteries.”

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

“Are we fallen angels who didn't want to believe that nothing is nothing and so were born to lose our loved ones and dear friends one by one and finally our own life, to see it proved?”

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

“A sociable smile is nothing but teeth.”

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

“We agreed to love each other madly.”

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

“As far as I'm concerned the only thing to do is sit in a room and get drunk”

“I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future.”

“The closer you get to real matter, rock air fire and wood, boy, the more spiritual the world is.”

“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…”

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

“I promise I shall never give up, and that I'll die yelling and laughing, and that until then I'll rush around this world I insist is holy and pull at everyone's lapel and make them confess to me and to all.”

“I hope it is true that a man can die and yet not only live in others but give them life, and not only life but that great consciousness of life.”

“The fact that everybody in the world dreams every night ties all mankind together.”

“They build their own Hells.”

“LA is the loneliest and most brutal of American cities; NY gets god-awful cold in the winter but there's a feeling of wacky comradeship somewhere in some streets. LA is a jungle.”

“My eyes were glued on life
and they were full of tears.”

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

“But, outside of being a sweet little girl, she was awfully dumb and capable of doing horrible things.”

“It'll take you eternities to get rid of me,' she adds sadly, which makes me jealous, I want her to say I'll never get rid of her - I wanta be chased till eternity till I catch her.”

“Sure baby, mañana. It was always mañana. For the next few weeks that was all I heard––mañana a lovely word and one that probably means heaven.”

“For the first time in my life the weather was not something that touched me, that caressed me, froze or sweated me, but became me.”

“Forgive everyone for your own sins and be sure to tell them you love them which you do.”

“There are worse things than being mad.”

“The beauty of things must be that they end.”

“Ah, it was a fine night, a warm night, a wine-drinking night, a moony night, and a night to hug your girl and talk and spit and be heavengoing.”