Jack Kerouac Quotes

Throughout the world, our insistence on individual freedom and opportunity has been at the bottom of what people think when they hear the very word 'American.'

The United States is my subject, but as Hawthorne once wrote, "the United States are suited for many admirable purposes, but not to live in."

People want to see this America, this real America.

I've always tried to write about America. It's very worth a writer's effort.

How can you tell somebody whose is pursuing happiness that they're somehow not American when that was the very first promise that America made?

The search for happiness has long been a dominant feature of American life. It's a byproduct of prosperity, not to mention the most famous line in the Declaration of Independence.

The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.

What makes America unique in the world is the idea of the self-directed life.

I want no criticism of America at my table. The Americans criticize themselves more than enough.

This is the story of America. Everybody's doing what they think they're supposed to do.

People say America is exceptional. I agree, but it's not the complexion of our skin or the twists in our DNA that make us unique. America is exceptional because we were founded upon the notion that everyone should be free to pursue life, liberty, and happiness.

A fundamental American question is, 'What's the big idea?'

Our individual liberty is the very essence of America. It is what makes America unique.

I want America to be more like America, if you will. I want the songs, that patriotism we have.

I kind of like America. I'm not looking for it to be fundamentally transformed into something else. I don't want it to become like Europe.

Just the basic principles of what makes America work for me are very strong in my heart. It's like no other nation in the world.

Be proud, proud, proud to be an American.

Much of my work is engaged with 'America' - the idea of America.

I'm an everyday American.

The United States represents hope, freedom and opportunities to those who are born here and to those who are not. Those values are part of the United States' fabric.

God bless America. I am American. I'm very patriotic. I love this country.

At the core of our American value system is individual freedom.

My fiction occupies, actually, the very heart of American culture: this eternal question and struggle of what it means to be an American.

America is definitely something I'm pretty excited about.

I understand things that are American, for better or worse.