Jack Kerouac Quotes

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved.

Now I'm old... maybe I'm still an eccentric hippie. There's a wonderful freedom in the eccentricity - you can go places, you can be wacky, and you don't have to be constrained. I think that's why people are eccentric - eccentricity is a weapon... and it's great!

Where's your will to be weird?

The amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the time.

Madness is only a variety of mental nonconformity and we are all individualists here.

I'm the last of the mad ones.

the mad have a grace all their own

It's like, you can't have any fun, and if you do have fun, if you do your own thing, you're considered crazy and should be in a mental institution. Now, that's what I find creepy. I'm eccentric. I am not messed up.

Perhaps he was a bit different from other people, but what really sympathetic person is not a little mad?

People relate to the spirit of the band, which is to live your way and succeed on your own terms. There's no hypocrisy in being successful and still railing against conformity.

Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from.

Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

Some of the most wonderful people are the ones who don't fit into boxes.

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

I find only freedom in the realms of eccentricity.

I have a really, really, really normal family. And by normal I mean we're all nuts on some level. I think you've gotta be a little nuts to pursue any kind of creative job. I was also a really good kid. I know that sounds really dull, but I didn't rebel in the traditional sense.

Having seen TED from a distance, I always thought if ever there was a place for someone like me, the outcasts, people who maintained who they are despite being told what they were, it was TED.

Heart is what drives us and determines our fate. That is what I need for my characters in my books: a passionate heart. I need mavericks, dissidents, adventurers, outsiders and rebels, who ask questions, bend the rules and take risks.

Sometimes you have to exercise your insanity, to really make it strong.

I don't want to be normal. I want to be something else.

Punk has always been about doing things your own way. What it represents for me is ultimate freedom and a sense of individuality.

Be the weirdest little weird in all Weird Town.

I get a kick out of not being ideal. I think it's awesome. That's entirely the point. And I think my creator is quite a character for letting that be.

Unless you hit your television with a sledgehammer, you're not going to be able to be an individual.

I like being unconventional.