“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!"”
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!"
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Jack Kerouac 266
American writer 1922–1969Related quotes

Saying 25, Page 6
From Apophthegmata Patrum

“You can't be happy that fire cooks your food and be mad it burns your fingertips.”
In regards to fame<sup> https://web.archive.org/web/20070314185437/http://www.craveonline.com/humor/articles/04647576/everybody_loves_chris.html</sup>
Miscellaneous

This Business of Living (1935-1950)

“What a silly god, he makes everybody born bad to go to burning hell. Why so mad? All his fault!”
Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Red Prophet (1988), Chapter 4.

Light (1919), Ch. XVI - De Profundis Clamavi
Context: All is madness. And there is no one who will dare to rise and say that all is not madness, and that the future does not so appear — as fatal and unchangeable as a memory.
But how many men will there be who will dare, in face of the universal deluge which will be at the end as it was in the beginning, to get up and cry "No!" who will pronounce the terrible and irrefutable issue: —
"No! The interests of the people and the interests of all their present overlords are not the same.

Le Manifeste du Surréalisme, Andre Breton (Manifesto of Surrealism; 1924)