Ken Kesey Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

• Ritual is necessary for us to know anything.

  Ken Kesey

  Literature, Ritual, Knows

  16 Copy quote

• But I tried, didn't I? Goddamnit, at least I did that.

  Ken Kesey

  Mcmurphy, Effort, Trying

  "Fictional character: R.P. McMurphy". One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, www.imdb.com. 1975.

  11 Copy quote

• We think we’re in the present, but we aren't. The present we know is only a movie of the past.

  Ken Kesey

  Past, Thinking, Kool Aid

  "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" by Tom Wolfe, (Ch. 11: The Unspoken Thing), 1968.

  7 Copy quote

• Listen, wait, and be patient. Every shaman knows you have to deal with the fire that's in your audience's eye.

  Ken Kesey

  Eye, Fire, Waiting

  9 Copy quote

• If you don't watch it people will force you one way or the other, into doing what they think you should do, or into just being mule-stubborn and doing the opposite out of spite.

  Ken Kesey

  Thinking, Opposites, People

  Ken Kesey (2016). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”, p.107, Hamilton Books

  18 Copy quote

• Luckily, I remembered something Malcolm Cowley had taught us at Stanford - perhaps the most important lesson a writing class (not a writer, understand, but a class) can ever learn. 'Be gentle with one another's efforts,' he often admonished us. 'Be kind and considerate with your criticism. Always remember that it's just as hard to write a bad book as it is to write a good book.'

  Ken Kesey

  Book, Writing, Taught Us

  14 Copy quote

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

  Ken Kesey

  Looks, Sometimes

  Ken Kesey (2002). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”, p.7, Penguin

  11 Copy quote

• There's something about taking a plow and breaking new ground. It gives you energy.

  Ken Kesey

  Giving, Energy, Breaking Promises

  9 Copy quote

• If you're a Conservative, why aren't you behind conserving the land?

  Ken Kesey

  Land, Literature, Conservative

  17 Copy quote

• Nowhere else in history has there ever been a flag that stands for the right to burn itself. This is the fractal of our flag. It stands for the right to destroy itself.

  Ken Kesey

  Flags, Fractals

  86 Copy quote

• 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.

  Ken Kesey

  Offering, Able, Habit

  9 Copy quote

• No, that nurse ain't some kinda monster chicken, buddy, what she is is a ball-cutter. I've seen a thousand of 'em, old and young, men and women. Seen 'em all over the country and in the homes- people who try to make you weak so they can get you to toe the line, to follow their rules, to live like they want you to. And the best way to do this, to get you to knuckle under, is to weaken you by gettin' you where it hurts the worst.

  Ken Kesey

  Country, Hurt, Home

  Ken Kesey (2016). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”, p.31, Hamilton Books

  18 Copy quote

• But it's the truth even if it didn't happen.

  Ken Kesey

  Truth, Mcmurphy, History

  Ken Kesey (2016). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”, p.3, Hamilton Books

  8 Copy quote

• The Grateful Dead are our religion. This is a religion that doesn't pay homage to the God that all the other religions pay homage to.

  Ken Kesey

  Grateful, Literature, Pay

  14 Copy quote

• We'd just shared the last beer and slung the empty can out the window at a stop sign and were just waiting back to get the feel of the day, swimming in that kind of tasty drowsiness that comes over you after a day of going hard at something you enjoy doing -- half sunburned and half drunk and keeping awake only because you wanted to savor the taste as long as you could.

  Ken Kesey

  Beer, Swimming, Long

  16 Copy quote

• This world belongs to the strong, my friend! The ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the weak. We must face up to this. No more than right that it should be this way. We must learn to accept it as a law of the natural world. The rabbits accept their role in the ritual and recognize the wolf as the strong. In defense, the rabbit becomes sly and frightened and elusive and he digs holes and hides when the wolf is about. And he endures, he goes on. He knows his place. He most certainly doesn't challenge the wolf to combat. Now, would that be wise? Would it?

  Ken Kesey

  Wise, Strong, Law

  Ken Kesey (2016). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”, p.33, Hamilton Books

  11 Copy quote

• The job is to seek mystery, evoke mystery, plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom. The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer.

  Ken Kesey

  Jobs, Garden, Needs

  "The Art of Fiction". The Paris Review No. 130, Spring 1994.

  9 Copy quote

• You’re just a young kid. What are you doin’ here? You oughta be out in a convertible, why… bird-doggin’ chicks and bangin’ beaver. What are ya doin’ here, for Christ’s sake? What’s funny about that? Jesus, I mean, you guys do nothin’ but complain about how you can’t stand it in this place here and then you haven’t got the guts just to walk out!

  Ken Kesey

  Jesus, Mean, Kids

  "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". Book by Ken Kesey, 1962.

  17 Copy quote

• The stars up close to the moon were pale; they got brighter and braver the farther they got out of the circle of light ruled by the giant moon

  Ken Kesey

  Stars, Moon, Light

  Ken Kesey (2012). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition”, p.150, Penguin

  13 Copy quote

• There are going to be times when we can't wait for somebody. Now, you're either on the bus or off the bus. If you're on the bus, and you get left behind, then you'll find it again. If you're off the bus in the first place — then it won't make a damn.

  Ken Kesey

  Waiting, Firsts, Pranksters

  Quoted in TomWolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968)

  10 Copy quote

• Now, you’re either on the bus or you’re off the bus.

  Ken Kesey

  Bus

  Quoted in TomWolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968)

  7 Copy quote

• The world news might not be therapeutic.

  Ken Kesey

  World News, Might, Therapeutic

  14 Copy quote

• If this glorious birth to death hassle is the only hassle we are ever to have ..if our grand exhilarating fight of life is such a tragically short little scrap anyway,compared to the eons of rounds before and after-then why should one want to relinquish even a few precious seconds of it?

  Ken Kesey

  Fighting, Want, Littles

  16 Copy quote

• The raw materials of reality without the glue of time are materials adrift and reality is as meaningless as the balsa parts of a model airplane scattered to the wind.

  Ken Kesey

  Airplane, Reality, Wind

  Ken Kesey (2006). “Sometimes a Great Notion”, p.160, Penguin

  19 Copy quote

• It's time to move on to the next step in the psychedelic revolution. We've reached a certain point, but we're not moving any more.

  Ken Kesey

  Moving On, Next Steps, Moved On

  30 Copy quote

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