Jack Kerouac Quotes

We write to taste life twice: in the moment and in retrospection.

You always have those moments of standing outside your own life and thinking, 'This is kind of bizarre and quite wonderful.' And I think those moments always catch you off guard.

I surprise myself by the things I get excited by.

Sometimes you watch yourself, and you think, 'Oh, wow.'

Wonder is involuntary praise.

Life never becomes a habit to me. It's always a marvel.

I write to make sense of things that don't make sense to me.

In my book, I was trying to get into my own soul.

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.

The book, you understand, was not written for publication. It was the portrayal of my emotions, the analysis of my own soul life during three months of my nineteenth year. I wrote then all the time, just as I do now, but, though the book is in diary form, it is not a diary.

He who wonders discovers that this in itself is wonder.

But by reading them again and again finally I was able to grasp the essential part. What emotion, enthusiasm, enlightenment and confidence they communicated to me! I wept for joy.

Each day holds a surprise. But only if we expect it can we see, hear, or feel it when it comes to us. Let's not be afraid to receive each day's surprise, whether it comes to us as sorrow or as joy It will open a new place in our hearts, a place where we can welcome new friends and celebrate more fully our shared humanity.

I discovered myself!

Writing is a way of processing our lives. And it can be a way of healing.

I think I surprise myself.

Man, you don't know how I felt that afternoon when I heard that voice and it was my own voice.

The only thing I have done religiously in my life is keep a journal. I have hundreds of them, filled with feathers, flowers, photographs, and words - without locks, open on my shelves.

A game is like a mirror that allows you to look at yourself.

The achievement is appreciation. Your ability to be surprised and awed by beauty!

I write to discover what I think.

You must reach inside yourselves where I live like a story, not old, not young laughing at my own sorrow, weeping pearls at weddings, wielding a torch to melt sand into something clear and bright.

Poems give you the lives of others and then circle in on your own inner world.

When we write about our lives we respond to them. As we respond to them we are rendered more fluid, more centered, more agile on our own behalf. We are tendered conscious.

When I go back and reread the stuff, I'm always floored by how deeply personal and revealing it actually is.