"I was amazed by the fact that I was not the only writer living, not the only young man "with a locomotive in his chest, and that's a fact," not the only youth with a million hungers and not one of the..."
- Jack Kerouac
"I was impressed with Jack [Kerouac]’s commitment to serious writing at the expense of everything else in his life. At a time when the middle class was burgeoning with new homes, two-tone American cars..."
- Sterling Lord
"A man cannot impart the true feeling of things to others unless he himself has experienced what he is trying to tell of."
"I clearly saw the skeleton underneathall this show of personalitywhat is left of a manand all his pride but bones?"
"At night in this part of the West the stars, as I had seen them in Wyoming, were as big as Roman Candles and as lonely as the Prince who's lost his ancestral home and journeys across the spaces trying..."
"I was suddenly left with nothing in my hands but a handful of crazy stars."
"The Grim Reaper isn't grim at all; he's a life-saver. He isn't grim because he isn't anything. . . . he is nothing. And nothing is a hell of a lot better than anything. So long, boys."
"I am young now and can look upon my body and soul with pride. But it will be mangled soon, and later it will begin to disintegrate, and then I shall die, and die conclusively. How can we face such a f..."