And I go home having lost her love. And write this book.

The vast diamond silence of the forest

What difference does it make after all?—anonymity in the world of men is better than fame in heaven, for what's heaven? what's earth? All in the mind.

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

history becomes fiction in the…act of being written down

Books, shmooks, this sickness has got me wishing if I can ever get out of this I'll gladly become a millworker and shut my big mouth.

then a clear harmonic cry gave new suggestions of a tune that would someday be the only tune in the world and would raise men's souls to joy.

A tremendous thing happened when Dean met Carlo Marx. Two keen minds that they are, they took to each other at the drop of a hat. Two piercing eyes glanced into two piercing eyes––the holy con–man with the shining mind, and the sorrowful poetic con–man with the dark mind that is Carlo Marx.

He was BEAT – the root, the soul of Beatific.

I remember him standing under a streetlamp.'Just as we passed that other lamp I was going to tell you a further thing, Sal, but now I am parenthetically continuing with a new thought and by the time we reach the next I'll return to the original subject, agreed?'I certainly agreed.

I'm my mother's son & my mother is the universe

...the whole world opened up before me because I had no dreams

Happiness consists in realizing it is all a great strange dream

and I looked at the cracked high ceiling and really didn't know who I was for about fifteen strange seconds. I wasn't scared; I was just somebody else, some stranger, and my whole life was a haunted life, the life of a ghost.

I decided someday to become a Thoreau of the Mountains. To live like Jesus and Thoreau, except for women.

There he was, my chipmunk, in the bright clear windy sunny air staring on the rock; hands clasping he sat up straight, some little oat between his paws; he nibbled, he darted away, the little nutty lord of all he surveyed.

As I imagine God to be doing this very minute, watching his own movie, which is us.

You'd never care to plant some roots insociety, I suppose,

..and that was the one distinct time in my life, the strangest moment of all, when I didnt know who I was

If you drop a rose in the Hudson River at its mysterious source in the Adiron dacks, think of all the places it journeys by as it goes out to sea forever—think of that wonderful Hudson Valley.

nothing could disturb this wise calm, this sanity of soul

It all ends in tears anyway.

So I went up and there she was, the girl with the pure and innocent dear eyes that I had always searched for and for so long. We agreed to love each other madly.

...Cody is furiously explaining to his little son Tim 'Never let the right hand know what your left hand is doing'...Page 100.

I loved the way she said 'LA'; I love the way everybody says 'LA' on the Coast; it's their one and only golden town when all is said and done.

We got off the bus at Main Street, which was no different from where you get off a bus in Kansas City or Chicago or Boston—red brick, dirty, characters drifting by, trolleys grating in the hopeless dawn, the whorey smell of a big city.

I had nothing to offer anybody, except my own confusion

I ate another apple pie and ice cream; that's practically all I ate all the way across the country, I knew it was nutritious and it was delicious, of course.

When it is recognized that there is nothing beyond what is seen of the mind itself, the discrimination of being and non–being ceases and, as there is thus no external world as the object of perception, nothing remains but the solitude of Reality.

I didn't know what to say. I felt like crying, Goddammit everybody in the world wants an explanation for your acts and for your very being.

I wasn't scared; I was just somebody else, some stranger, and my whole life was a haunted life, the life of a ghost.

Walking on water wasn't built in a day.

Behind us lay the whole of America and everything Dean and I had previously known about life, and life on the road. We had finally found the magic land at the end of the road and we never dreamed the extent of the magic.

No 'generation' is 'new.' There's 'nothing new under the sun.' 'All is vanity.

I had an overwhelming urge to close my eyes in company. I think the girls were terrified of this. "What's he always sitting with his eyes closed for?

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.

This is the beginning and the end of the world right here. Look at those patient Buddhas lookin at us saying nothing.

Oh what was the racket that backeted and smashed in raging might, to make this oil–puddle world?––

Every now and then a clear harmonic cry gave new suggestions of a tune that would someday be the only tune in the word and would raise mean's souls to joy.

The tree looks like a dog, Barking at heaven

I went to sit in the bus station and think this over. I ate another apple pie and ice cream; that'spractically all I ate all the way across the country, I knew it was nutritious and it was delicious, ofcourse.

They never asked, I kept offering.

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... burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow Roman candles.

It's only through form that we can realize emptiness

It´s a sin how happy I can be living alone like a hermit.

Deni is meanwhile very busy tellin me what a mess I've made of my life but I've heard that from everybody coast to coast and I don't care generally and I don't care tonight and this is my way of doing and saying things.

He and I suddenly saw the whole country like an oyster for us to open; and the pearl was there, the pearl was there.

Something good will come out of all things yet––And it will be golden and eternal just like that––There's no need to say another word.

Hitch hiked a thousandmiles and broughtYou wine

There was a sound of slappingWhen the angel stole comeAnd the angel that had lostLay back satisfied