Jack Kerouac Quotes

American writer (1922–1969)

Jack Kerouac (12 March 1922 – 21 October 1969), born Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac, was an American novelist, poet, and artist. He was a central figure among Beat Generation writers.

From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Native Name: Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac

Alternative Names: Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac • Kerouac • Jean-Louis Kerouac

From Wikidata (CC0)

I went one afternoon to the church of my childhood and had a vision of what I must have really meant with "Beat"... the vision of the word Beat as being to mean beatific... People began to call themselves beatniks, beats, jazzniks, bopniks, bugniks and finally I was called the "avatar" of all this.

John Clellon Holmes ... and I were sitting around trying to think up the meaning of the Lost Generation and the subsequent Existentialism and I said, 'You know, this is really a beat generation' and he leapt up and said 'That's it, that's right!'

Listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world

Who knows, my God, but that the universe is not one vast sea of compassion actually, the veritable holy honey, beneath all this show of personality and cruelty?

We should be wondering tonight, "Is there a world?" But I could go and talk on 5, 10, 20 minutes about is there a world, because there is really no world, cause sometimes I'm walkin' on the ground and I see right through the ground. And there is no world. And you'll find out.

Be in love with your life every detail of it

Believe in the holy contour of life

Write in recollection and amazement for yourself

I hope it is true that a man can die and yet not only live in others but give them life, and not only life but that great consciousness of life.