Quotes from Ken Kesey

I turned, going back along the planks toward the idling pick-up without saying anything else. I just wanted to be away from people. I didn't want to have to avoid answering questions about what happened. I didn't want the questions.

We have weeks, or months, or even years if need be. Keep in mind that Mr. McMurphy is committed. The length of time he spends in this hospital is entirely up to us. Now, if there is nothing else…

Is it that?" she asked in a soft voice, once more examining her hands, "not being sure of that 'someday'? Or is it not being sure of having that 'somebody'?

And I lay awake for hours, hoping another phone call would give me that opportunity to be alone and unruffled with her.

an old gray aunt who came to visit every winter and stayed till spring. You learn to live with her.

We'd just shared the last beer and slung the empty can out the window at a stop sign and were just leaning 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.

The big, hard body had a tough grip on life. It fought a long time against having it taken away, flailing and thrashing around so much I finally had to lie full length on top of it and scissor the kicking legs with mine while I mashed the pillow into the face. I lay there on top of the body for what seemed days.

He's got hands so long and white and dainty I think they carved each other out of soap, and sometimes they get loose and glide around in front of him free as two white birds until he notices them and traps them between his knees; it bothers him that he's got pretty hands.

He didn't feel he had the ability to follow her into those reveries or the right to call her back out.

Mi lenne itten, ha mindenki akkor állna neki a fogát sikálni, amikor eszébe jut?

A wind came up and broke the sea into green and silver chunks, like a field of glass and chrome, and the boat began to rock and pitch about more...The waves got bigger as we got closer to shore, and from the crests clots of white foam blew swirling up in the wind to join the gulls.

With eyes like he's been to the edge and looked over .

No. No, listen. They don't bust you that way; they work on you ways you can't fight! They put things in! They install things. They start as quick as they see you're gonna be big and go to working and installing their filthy machinery when you're little, and keep on and on and on till you're fixed!

Boy, if you ain't a case: waiting someday to be a something to a Somebody you don't even know, yet.

Mõnikord ma unustan, milleks naer on võimeline.

Den Der Marcherer Ude Af Takt Hører En Anden Tromme.

Even a man who is pure of heart And says his prayers at night May turn to a wolf when the wolfbane blooms And the autumn moon is bright.

I understand perfectly; it's like the madman who goes over Niagara Falls in a coffee can because that's as good a way as any to get dead." "That's right," I tell him, knowing he don't understand it at all—that it's more because it's as good a way as any to stay alive. . . .

Meaning: Good night but stay. Viv, silent and slim as a shaft of sleepy light, stay, talk more to me with your articulate eyes. Hank, forget my words behind my words, stay, say some more. This is our chance. This is my chance. Say enough more for love or hate, enough more to make me sure of one or the other. Please stay, please stay .

They didn't mind so much when I was a dumb logger and got into a hassle; that's excusable, they say, that's a hard-workin' feller blowing off steam, they say. But if you're a gambler, if they know you to get up a back-room game now and then, all you have to do is spit slantwise and you're a goddamned criminal.

Hank brooded behind a newspaper with heavy, rumbling silence, and Lee, smoking and staring out of the kitchen window with tragic, defeated eyes and an anemic pallor to his cheeks, didn't look capable of sustaining the shock of a haircut, let alone the loss of a mouthful of teeth.

Io so soltanto questo: nessuno è perfetto, in primo luogo, e a me sembra che tutti quanti impieghino la loro esistenza dilaniando il prossimo.

I don't think you fully understand the public, my friend; in this country, when something is out of order, then the quickest way to get it fixed is the best way

And the redwinged blackbirds sing in the budding greengage plumtree.