Quotes from Daniel Keyes

I don't know what's worse: to not know what you are and be happy, or to become what you've always wanted to be, and feel alone.

I am afraid. Not of life, or death, or nothingness, but of wasting it as if I had never been.

Thank God for books and music and things I can think about.

Now I understand that one of the important reasons for going to college and getting an education is to learn that the things you've believed in all your life aren't true, and that nothing is what it appears to be.

That's the thing about human life--there is no control group, no way to ever know how any of us would have turned out if any variables had been changed.

Its easy to make frends if you let pepul laff at you.

How strange it is that people of honest feelings and sensibilty, who would not take advantage of a man born without arms or legs or eyes—how such people think nothing of abusing a man with low intelligence.

A child may not know how to feed itself, or what to eat, yet it knows hunger.

Why am I always looking at life through a window?

Don't feel sorry for me. I'm glad I had a second chance in life like you said to be smart because I learned a lot of things that I never knew were in this world, and I'm grateful I saw it even for a little bit.

Punctuation, is? fun!

There are a lot of people who will give money or materials, but very few who will give time and affection.

I see now that the path I choose through the maze makes me what I am. I am not only a thing, but also a way of being—one of many ways—and knowing the paths I have followed and the ones left to take will help me understand what I am becoming.

There are so many doors to open. I am impatient to begin." --Charlie Gordan

P.S. please if you get a chanse put some flowrs on Algernons grave in the bak yard.

Strange about learning; the farther I go the more I see that I never knew even existed. A short while ago I foolishly thought I could learn everything - all the knowledge in the world. Now I hope only to be able to know of its existence, and to understand one grain of it. Is there time?

Who's to say that my light is better than your darkness? Who's to say death is better than your darkness? Who am I to say?

Just leave me alone. I'm not myself. I'm falling apart, and I don't want you here.

No one really starts anything new, Mrs. Nemur. Everyone builds on other men's failures. There is nothing really original in science. What each man contributes to the sum of knowledge is what counts.

Only a short time ago, I learned that people laughed at me. Now I can see that unknowingly I joined them in laughing at myself. That hurts the most.

Even in the world of make-believe there have to be rules. The parts have to be consistent and belong together.

How can I make him understand that he did not create me? He makes the same mistake as the others when they look at a feeble-minded person and laugh because they don't understand there are human feelings involved.

Intelligence and education that hasn't been tempered by human affection isn't worth a damn.

Although we know the end of the maze holds death (and it is something I have not always known--not long ago the adolescent in me thought death could happen only to other people), I see now that the path I choose through that maze makes me what I am. I am not only a thing, but also a way of being--one of many ways--and knowing the paths I have followed and the ones left to take will help me understand what I am becoming.