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Portrait of Ken Kesey

Ken Kesey

(1935–2001) Writer United States

295 quotes in 865 categories

The Grateful Dead are faster than light drive, and the writer feels like a plow breaking new ground. He mentions unexplored frontiers from the ’60s, the struggle to unscrew the inscrutable, and the tension between real strength and hidden weakness. Identity shifts like a face that isn’t really yours.

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Ken Kesey was a writer from the United States, best known for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Quick Facts About Ken Kesey

Born: September 17, 1935
Died: November 10, 2001
Nationality: United States
Profession: Writer
Notable works: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Known for: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Sometimes a Great Notion

About Ken Kesey

Kenneth Elton Kesey, known as Ken Kesey, was an American novelist, essayist, and countercultural figure. He described himself as a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s, reflecting his role in two major cultural movements.

Quotes by Ken Kesey

“Rules? PISS ON YOUR FUCKING RULES!”

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Ocean, Ocean I'll beat you in the end.

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See with your ears and hear with your eyes.

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Fascism wants Baptism coast to coast.

Baptism

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I been away a long time.

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“It's the truth, even if it didn't happen.”

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“I'll trim you babies like little lambs”

Babies

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The man who seeks revenge digs two graves.

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“He knew you can't really be strong until you can see a funny side of things.”

Comedy

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“Ah, ah, ahhh ... first one gets mad, then one goes mad”

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“He's safe as long as he can laugh, he thinks, and it works pretty fair.”

Comedy

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“They are in contact on a high-voltage wavelength of hate...”

Hate

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“He's what he is, that's it. Maybe that makes him strong enough, being what he is.”

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The Haight is just a place; the '60s was a spirit.

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What we hoped was that we could stop the coming end of the world.

Apocalypse

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The dead's dead ... get 'em in the ground and look to the live ones.

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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…

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Of offering more than what I can deliver, I have a bad habit, it is true. But I have to offer more…

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“Because sometimes the only way to keep from losing everything is to give everything up. Because sometimes strength must for the sake…

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“It’s still hard for me to have a clear mind thinking on it. But it’s the truth even if it didn’t happen.”

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You don't lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a…

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“... and if I don't have her to where she don't know whether to shit or go blind, the bet is yours.”

Blind

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When you're around the whole Dead scene, they're there as a tribal thing; they're there as part of a rendezvous and a…

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The stars up close to the moon were pale; they got brighter and braver the farther they got out of the circle…

Circles

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The reverberation often exceeds through silence the sound that sets it off; the reaction occasionally outdoes by way of repose the event…

Events

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“I can see the…seams where they’re put together. And, almost, see the apparatus inside them take the words I just said and…

Language

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If you don't watch it people will force you one way or the other, into doing what they think you should do,…

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What the Chronics are - or most of us - are machines with flaws inside that can't be repaired, flaws born in,…

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She asked if we were calm enough for her to take off the cuffs, and McMurphy nodded. He had slumped over with…

Calm

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If this glorious birth to death hassle is the only hassle we are ever to have ..if our grand exhilarating fight of…

Before and after

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“I'd think, That ain't me, that ain't my face. It wasn't even me when I was trying to be that face. I…

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“I see he had his shorts on under the towel all along. I think for a fact that she'd rather he'd of…

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“he commences to laugh. Nobody can tell exactly why he laughs; there’s nothing funny going on. But it’s not the way that…

Laughter

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The flock gets sight of a spot of blood on some chicken and they all go to peckin' at it, see, till…

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“It's gonna burn me just that way, finally telling about all this, about the hospital, and her, and the guys- and about…

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“That aunt of mine; boy, she used to wear make-up all week long so terrible thick that - well, she started about…

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“I can’t do nothing for you either, Billy. You know that. None of us can. You got to understand that as soon…

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“You might hide in some Freudian jungle most of your miserable life, baying at the moon and shouting curses at God, but…

Life

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“The story is told that when Joe was a child his cousins emptied his Christmas stocking and replaced the gifts with horse…

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

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Ken Kesey by topic

Time (23) Thinking (19) Comedy (19) Inspirational (18) Life (17) Men (16) Love (16) People (14) Truth (12) World (11) Psychology (11) Laughter (10) Laugh (10)