--- title: "2 Eyes Shut Quotes By Ken Kesey" description: "2 Eyes Shut quotes by Ken Kesey. Plus more from Ken Kesey and more Eyes Shut sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b04/ken-kesey-1034_first-time_i-realized-i-still-had-my-eyes-shut-i-ha_1514474.jpg" --- > [“I realized I still had my eyes shut. I had shut them when I put my face to the screen, like I was scared to look outside. Now I had to open them. I looked out the window and saw…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-kesey/i-realized-i-still-had-my-eyes-shut-i-had-shut-them-when-i-put-my/) [Ken Kesey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-kesey/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b04/ken-kesey-1034_first-time_i-realized-i-still-had-my-eyes-shut-i-ha_1514474.jpg) > [“I realized I still had my eyes shut. I had shut them when I put my face to the screen, like I was scared to look outside. Now I had to open them. I looked out the window and saw…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-kesey/i-realized-i-still-had-my-eyes-shut-i-had-shut-them-when-i-put-my-2/) [Ken Kesey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-kesey/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1ae/ken-kesey-1034_descriptions_i-realized-i-still-had-my-eyes-shut-i-ha_2510843.jpg) ## More by Ken Kesey > [“Time overlaps itself. A breath breathed from a passing breeze is not the whole wind, neither is it just the last of what has…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-kesey/time-overlaps-itself-a-breath-breathed-from-a-passing-breeze-is-not/) [Ken Kesey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-kesey/) > [The Grateful Dead are faster than light drive.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-kesey/the-grateful-dead-are-faster-than-light-drive/) [Ken Kesey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-kesey/) > [“Okay, stand outa the way. Sometimes when I go to exertin' myself I use up all the air nearby and grown men faint from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-kesey/okay-stand-outa-the-way-sometimes-when-i-go-to-exertin-myself-i-use/) [Ken Kesey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-kesey/) > [The frontiers we broke into in the '60s are still largely unexplored.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-kesey/the-frontiers-we-broke-into-in-the-60s-are-still-largely-unexplored/) [Ken Kesey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-kesey/) > [There's something about taking a plow and breaking new ground. It gives you energy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-kesey/there-s-something-about-taking-a-plow-and-breaking-new-ground-it/) [Ken Kesey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-kesey/) > [The best of all possible cages.' Ben stepped back to regard the job with a sad smile. 'What more can one ask?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-kesey/the-best-of-all-possible-cages-ben-stepped-back-to-regard-the-job/) [Ken Kesey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-kesey/) > [Your trouble is, you keep trying to unscrew the unscrutable.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-kesey/your-trouble-is-you-keep-trying-to-unscrew-the-unscrutable/) [Ken Kesey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-kesey/) > [That ain't me, that ain't my face. It wasn't even me when I was trying to be that face. I wasn't even really me…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-kesey/that-ain-t-me-that-ain-t-my-face-it-wasn-t-even-me-when-i-was-trying/) [Ken Kesey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-kesey/) > [But if the strength ain't real, I recall thinking the very last thing that day, before I finally passed out, then the weakness sure…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-kesey/but-if-the-strength-ain-t-real-i-recall-thinking-the-very-last-thing/) [Ken Kesey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-kesey/) > [“They think they know the book by its cover, but the book knows what it is. Now he knew better; if the book never…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-kesey/they-think-they-know-the-book-by-its-cover-but-the-book-knows-what-it/) [Ken Kesey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-kesey/) > [More was revealed in a human face than a human being can bear face to face.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-kesey/more-was-revealed-in-a-human-face-than-a-human-being-can-bear-face-to/) [Ken Kesey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-kesey/) > [If this glorious birth to death hassle is the only hassle we are ever to have ..if our grand exhilarating fight of life is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-kesey/if-this-glorious-birth-to-death-hassle-is-the-only-hassle-we-are-ever/) [Ken Kesey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-kesey/) > [“It's gonna burn me just that way, finally telling about all this, about the hospital, and her, and the guys- and about McMurphy. I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-kesey/it-s-gonna-burn-me-just-that-way-finally-telling-about-all-this-about/) [Ken Kesey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-kesey/) > [When Shakespeare was writing, he wasn't writing for stuff to lie on the page; it was supposed to get up and move around.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-kesey/when-shakespeare-was-writing-he-wasn-t-writing-for-stuff-to-lie-on/) [Ken Kesey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-kesey/) > [“And then some guy wandering as lost as you would all of a sudden be right before your eyes, his face bigger and clearer…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-kesey/and-then-some-guy-wandering-as-lost-as-you-would-all-of-a-sudden-be/) [Ken Kesey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-kesey/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/eyes-shut/ken-kesey/#itemlist", "name": "2 Eyes Shut Quotes By Ken Kesey", "numberOfItems": 2, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“I realized I still had my eyes shut. I had shut them when I put my face to the screen, like I was scared to look outside. Now I had to open them. I looked out the window and saw for the first time how the hospital was out in the country. The moon was low in the sky over the pastureland; the face of it was scarred and scuffed where it had just torn up out of the snarl of scrub oak and madrone trees on the horizon. 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. I was off on a hunt with Papa and the uncles and I lay rolled in blankets Grandma had woven, lying off a piece from where the men hunkered around the fire as they passed a quart jar of cactus liquor in a silent circle. I watched that big Oregon prairie moon above me put all the stars around it to shame. I kept awake watching, to see if the moon ever got dimmer or the stars got brighter, till the dew commenced to drift onto my cheeks and I had to pull a blanket over my head.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ken Kesey" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-kesey/i-realized-i-still-had-my-eyes-shut-i-had-shut-them-when-i-put-my/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b04/ken-kesey-1034_first-time_i-realized-i-still-had-my-eyes-shut-i-ha_1514474.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b04/ken-kesey-1034_first-time_i-realized-i-still-had-my-eyes-shut-i-ha_1514474.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b04/ken-kesey-1034_first-time_i-realized-i-still-had-my-eyes-shut-i-ha_1514474.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I realized I still had my eyes shut. I had shut them when I put my face to the screen, like I was scared to…” — Ken Kesey", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“I realized I still had my eyes shut. I had shut them when I put my face to the screen, like I was scared to look outside. Now I had to open them. I looked out the window and saw for the first time how the hospital was out in the country. The moon was low in the sky over the pastureland; the face of it was scarred and scuffed where it had just torn up out of the snarl of scrub oak and madrone trees on the horizon. 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. It called to mind how I noticed the exact same thing when I was off on a hunt with Papa and the uncles and I lay rolled in blankets Grandma had woven, lying off a piece from where the men hunkered around the fire as they passed a quart jar of cactus liquor in a silent circle. I watched that big Oregon prairie moon above me put all the stars around it to shame. I kept awake watching, to see if the moon ever got dimmer or if the stars got brighter, till the dew commenced to drift onto my cheeks and I had to pull a blanket over my head. Something moved on the grounds down beneath my window — cast a long spider of shadow out across the grass as it ran out of sight behind a hedge. When it ran back to where I could get a better look, I saw it was a dog, a young, gangly mongrel slipped off from home to find out about things went on after dark. He was sniffing digger squirrel holes, not with a notion to go digging after one but just to get an idea what they were up to at this hour. He’d run his muzzle down a hole, butt up in the air and tail going, then dash off to another. The moon glistened around him on the wet grass, and when he ran he left tracks like dabs of dark paint spattered across the blue shine of the lawn. Galloping from one particularly interesting hole to the next, he became so took with what was coming off — the moon up there, the night, the breeze full of smells so wild makes a young dog drunk — that he had to lie down on his back and roll. He twisted and thrashed around like a fish, back bowed and belly up, and when he got to his feet and shook himself a spray came off him in the moon like silver scales. He sniffed all the holes over again one quick one, to get the smells down good, then suddenly froze still with one paw lifted and his head tilted, listening. I listened too, but I couldn’t hear anything except the popping of the window shade. I listened for a long time. Then, from a long way off, I heard a high, laughing gabble, faint and coming closer. Canada honkers going south for the winter. I remembered all the hunting and belly-crawling I’d ever done trying to kill a honker, and that I never got one. I tried to look where the dog was looking to see if I could find the flock, but it was too dark. The honking came closer and closer till it seemed like they must be flying right through the dorm, right over my head. Then they crossed the moon — a black, weaving necklace, drawn into a V by that lead goose. For an instant that lead goose was right in the center of that circle, bigger than the others, a black cross opening and closing, then he pulled his V out of sight into the sky once more. I listened to them fade away till all I could hear was my memory of the sound.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ken Kesey" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-kesey/i-realized-i-still-had-my-eyes-shut-i-had-shut-them-when-i-put-my-2/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1ae/ken-kesey-1034_descriptions_i-realized-i-still-had-my-eyes-shut-i-ha_2510843.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1ae/ken-kesey-1034_descriptions_i-realized-i-still-had-my-eyes-shut-i-ha_2510843.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1ae/ken-kesey-1034_descriptions_i-realized-i-still-had-my-eyes-shut-i-ha_2510843.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I realized I still had my eyes shut. 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