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I Have Been Writing My Heart Out All My Life, But Only Getting A Living Out Of It Now.... ... It's Not A Question Of The Merit Of Art, But A Question Of Spontaneity And Sincerity And Joy I Say. I Would Like Everybody In The World To Tell His Full Life Confession And Tell It His Own Way And Then We'd Have Something To Read In Our Old Age.
-Jack Kerouac
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I Have Been Writing

Jack Kerouac
I Have Been Writing My Heart Out All My Life, But Only Getting A Living Out Of It Now.... ... It's Not A Question Of The Merit Of Art, But A Question Of Spontaneity And Sincerity And Joy I Say. I Would Like Everybody In The World To Tell His Full Life Confession And Tell It His Own Way And Then We'd Have Something To Read In Our Old Age.
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Topic
Art
Writing
Joy
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In All This Welter Of Women I Still Hadn't Got One For Myself, Not That I Was Trying Too Hard, But Sometimes I Felt Lonely To See Everybody Paired Off And Having A Good Time And All I Did Was Curl Up In My Sleeping Bag In The Rosebushes And Sigh And Say Bah. For Me It Was Just Red Wine In My Mouth And A Pile Of Firewood
Lonely
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Sleep
I'd Sleep And Forget It; I Had My Own Life, My Own Sad And Ragged Life Forever.
Sleep
Forever
Forget
Sometimes I’d Get Mad Because Things Didn’t Work Out So Well, I’d Spoil A Flapjack, Or Slip In The Snowfield While Getting Water, Or One Time My Shovel Went Sailing Down Into The Gorge, And I’d Be So Mad I’d Want To Bite The Mountaintops And Would Come In The Shack And Kick The Cupboard And Hurt My Toe. But Let The Mind Beware, Though The Flesh Be Bugged, The Circumstances Of Existence Are Pretty Glorious.
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Mad
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The Beat Generation (coined In Playboy)
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Night Is Longer Than Day For Those Who Dream & Day Is Longer Than Night For Those Who Make Their Dreams Comes True.
Good Night
Goodnight
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My Life Is A Vast Inconsequential Epic.
Epic
Life Is
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It Seemed Like A Matter Of Minutes When We Began Rolling In The Foothills Before Oakland And Suddenly Reached A Height And Saw Stretched Out Ahead Of Us The Fabulous White City Of San Francisco On Her Eleven Mystic Hills With The Blue Pacific And Its Advancing Wall Of Potato-patch Fog Beyond, And Smoke And Goldenness In The Late Afternoon Of Time.
Wall
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No Man Should Go Through Life Without Once Experiencing Healthy, Even Bored Solitude In The Wilderness, Finding Himself Depending Solely On Himself And Thereby Learning His True And Hidden Strength
Being Alone
Men
Boredom
We Lay On Our Backs Looking At The Ceiling And Wondering What God Had Wrought When He Made Life So Sad And Disinclined.
Ceilings
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Down In Denver, All I Did Was Die.
Denver
Dies
What's In Store For Me In The Direction I Don't Take?
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Genius Gives Birth, Talent Delivers. What Rembrandt Or Van Gogh Saw In The Night Can Never Be Seen Again.
Night
Giving
Design
Marylou Was Watching Dean As She Had Watched Him Clear Across The Country And Back, Out Of The Corner Of Her Eye--with A Sullen, Sad Air, As Though She Wanted To Cut Off His Head And Hide It In Her Closet, An Envious And Rueful Love Of Him So Amazingly Himself, All Raging And Sniffy And Crazy-wayed, A Smile Of Tender Dotage But Also Sinister Envy That Frightened Me About Her, A Love She Knew Would Never Bear Fruit Because When She Looked At His Hangjawed Bony Face With Its Male Self-containment And Absentmindedness She Knew He Was Too Mad.
Country
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Eye
I Am Always Thinking 'what Am I Doing Here? Is This The Way I Am Supposed To Feel?'
Inspirational
Thinking
Way
This Was Really The Way My Whole Road Experience Began, And The Things That Were To Come Are Too Fantastic Not To Tell.
Way
Fantastic
Whole
I Want To Work In Revelations, Not Just Spin Silly Tales For Money. I Want To Fish As Deep Down As Possible Into My Own Subconscious In The Belief That Once That Far Down, Everyone Will Understand Because They Are The Same That Far Down.
Silly
Want
Belief
Let The Mind Beware, That Though The Flesh Be Bugged, The Circumstances Of Existence Are Pretty Glorious.
Wisdom
Mind
Gorges
Whither Goest Thou, America, In Thy Shiny Car In The Night?
Night
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You Can't Fight City Hall. It Keeps Changing Its Name.
Fighting
Cities
Names
Struggle To Sketch The Flow That Already Exists Intact In Mind.
Struggle
Writing
Mind
Avoid The World, It's Just A Lot Of Dust And Drag And Means Nothing In The End.
Mean
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I Had Nothing To Offer Anybody Except My Own Confusion.
Thinking
Confusion
Confusing
The Truth Of The Matter Is We Don't Understand Our Women; We Blame On Them And It's All Our Fault.
Matter
Faults
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It Was A Rainy Night. It Was The Myth Of The Rainy Night.
Night
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Myth
Ah, Life Is A Gate, A Way, A Path To Paradise Anyway, Why Not Live For Fun And Joy And Love Or Some Sort Of Girl By A Fireside, Why Not Go To Your Desire And Laugh.
Love
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But They Need To Worry And Betray Time With Urgencies False And Otherwise, Purely Anxious And Whiny, Their Souls Really Won't Be At Peace Unless They Can Latch To An Established And Proven Worry And Having Once Found It They Assume Facial Expressions To Fit And Go With It, Which Is, You See, Unhappiness, And All The Time It All Flies By Them And They Know It And That Too Worries Them No End.
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Worry
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The Empty Blue Sky Of Space Says 'all This Comes Back To Me, Then Goes Again, And Comes Back Again, Then Goes Again, And I Don't Care, It Still Belongs To Me
Wisdom
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Space
Man, Wow, There's So Many Things To Do, So Many Things To Write! How To Even Begin To Get It All Down And Without Modified Restraints And All Hung-up On Like Literary Inhibitions And Grammatical Fears.
Writing
Men
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Dean's California--wild, Sweaty, Important, The Land Of Lonely And Exiled And Eccentric Lovers Come To Forgather Like Birds, And The Land Where Everybody Somehow Looked Like Broken-down, Handsome, Decadent Movie Actors.
Lonely
Land
California
What Difference Does It Make After All?--anonymity In The World Of Men Is Better Than Fame In Heaven, For What’s Heaven? What’s Earth? All In The Mind.
Wisdom
Men
Differences
A Fine Thing To Be Talking About Angels In This Day When Common Thieves Smash The Holy Rosaries Of Their Victims In The Street.
Angel
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Rosary
All He Needed Was A Wheel In His Hand And Four On The Road.
Wisdom
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Wheels
Galatea Was A Serious Girl. She Was Pale And Looked Like Tears All Over. Big Ed Passed His Hand Through His Hair And Said Hello. She Looked At Him Steadily. "where Have You Been? Why Did You Do This To Me?" And She Gave Dean A Dirty Look; She Knew The Score. Dean Paid Absolutely No Attention; What He Wanted Now Was Food; He Asked Jane If There Was Anything. The Confusion Began Right There.
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Hair
At Night I Closed My Eyes And Saw My Bones Threading The Mud Of My Grave.
Eye
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Mud
We Were All Delighted, We All Realized We Were Leaving Confusion And Nonsense Behind And Performing Our One And Noble Function Of The Time, Move.
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Leaving
It All Ends In Tears Anyway.
Wisdom
Tears
Ends
...and Performing Our One And Noble Function Of The Time, Move.
Moving
Noble
Function
The Taste Of Rain -- Why Kneel?
Rain
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Think What A Great World Revolution Will Take Place When ... [there Are] Millions Of Guys All Over The World With Rucksacks On Their Backs Tramping Around The Back Country.
Country
Journey
Thinking
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.
Tonight
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Causes
If You Tell A True Story, You Can't Be Wrong.
Inspirational
Stories
True Story
I Looked Up At The Dark Sky And Prayed To God For A Better Break In Life And A Better Chance To Do Something For The Little People I Loved.
Dark
Sky
People
I Promise I Shall Never Give Up, And That I'll Die Yelling And Laughing, And That Until Then I'll Rush Around This World I Insist Is Holy And Pull At Everyone's Lapel And Make Them Confess To Me And To All.
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Giving Up
Yelling
I Mean, Why On Earth (outside Sickness And Hangovers) Aren't People Continually Drunk? I Want Ecstasy Of The Mind All The Time.
Hangover
Mean
People
I Feel Guilty For Being A Member Of The Human Race.
Wisdom
Race
Big Sur
The Silence Was An Intense Roar.
Silence
Intense
Holy Flowers Floating In The Air, Were All These Tired Faces In The Dawn Of Jazz America.
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Air
God Was Gone; It Was The Silence Of His Departure. It Was A Rainy Night. It Was The Myth Of The Rainy Night. Dean Was Popeyed With Awe. This Madness Would Lead Nowhere. I Didn't Know What Was Happening To Me, And I Suddenly Realized It Was Only The Tea That We Were Smoking; Dean Had Bought Some In New York. It Made Me Think That Everything Was About To Arrive - The Moment When You Know All And Everything Is Decided Forever.
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If You Own A Rug You Own Too Much.
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There Is Universal Substance Which Is Divine Substance Because Where Else Can It Be?
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Aw I Don't Wanta Go To No Such Thing, I Just Wanta Drink In Alleys.'... But You'll Miss All That, Just For Some Old Wine.' There's Wisdom In Wine, Goddam It!' I Yelled. 'have A Shot!
Wine
Missing
Drink
I Clearly Saw The Skeleton Underneath All This Show Of Personality What Is Left Of A Man And All His Pride But Bones?
Pride
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Yeah," I Said, "but You're An Artist. You Don't Believe In Decency And Honesty And Gratitude. Where Shall We Eat?
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Honesty
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Soon It Got Dusk, A Grapy Dusk, A Purple Dusk Over Tangerine Groves And Long Melon Fields; The Sun The Color Of Pressed Grapes, Slashed With Burgandy Red, The Fields The Color Of Love And Spanish Mysteries.
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Purple
The Tree Looks Like A Dog, Barking At Heaven.
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Tree
Heaven
Hell Man, I Know Very Well You Didn't Come To Me Only To Want To Become A Writer, And After All What Do I Really Know About It Except That You've Got To Stick To It With The Energy Of A Benny Addict.
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Men
Energy
Between Incomprehensible And Incoherent Sits The Madhouse. I Am Not In The Madhouse.
Madhouses
Believe That The World Is An Ethereal Flower, And Ye Live.
Believe
Flower
World
The Only People For Me Are The Mad Ones, The Ones Who Are Mad To Live, Mad To Talk, Mad To Be Saved, Desirous Of Everything At The Same Time, The Ones Who Never Yawn Or Say A Commonplace Thing, But Burn, Burn, Burn Like Fabulous Yellow Roman Candles Exploding Like Spiders Across The Stars.
Inspirational
Friends
Horse
To The Children And The Innocent It's All The Same.
Children
Vapor
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...we All Must Admit That Everything Is Fine And There's No Need In The World To Worry, And In Fact We Should Realize What It Would Mean To Us To Understand That We're Not Really Worried About Anything.
Wisdom
Mean
Worry
...notice How He Will Come To Manhood With His Own Particular Soul Bespeaking Itself Through The Windows Which Are His Eyes, And Such Lovely Eyes Surely Do Prophesy And Indicate The Loveliest Of Souls.
Eye
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Lovely
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.
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People
Childhood
Offer Them What They Secretly Want And They Of Course Immediately Become Panic-stricken.
Wisdom
Want
Panic
That's The Story Of My Life Rich Or Poor And Mostly Poor And Truly Poor.
Rich Or Poor
Stories
Story Of My Life
Nothing Behind Me, Everything Ahead Of Me, As Is Ever So On The Road.
Wisdom
Travel
Inspire
The Dream Is Already Ended And We're Already Awake In The Golden Eternity.
Dream
Golden
Eternity
Bee, Why Are You Staring At Me? I Am Not A Flower??
Flower
Bees
Staring
It Was My Dream That Screwed Up, The Stupid Hearthside Idea That It Would Be Wonderful To Follow One Great Red Line Across America Instead Of Trying Various Roads And Routes.
Dream
Stupid
Ideas
And When The Fog's Over And The Stars And The Moon Come Out At Night It'll Be A Beautiful Sight.
Beautiful
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Moon
Man Lowers His Head And Lunges Into Civilization, Forgetting The Days Of His Infancy When He Sought Truth In A Snowflake Or A Stick. Man Forgets The Wisdom Of The Child.
Children
Men
Civilization
Don't Tell Them Too Much About Your Soul. They're Waiting For Just That.
Waiting
Soul
Too Much
Bop Began With Jazz But One Afternoon Somewhere On A Sidewalk Maybe 1939, 1940, Dizzy Gillespie Or Charlie Parker Or Thelonious Monk Was Walking Past A Men's Clothing Store On 42nd Street Or South Main In L.a. And From A Loudspeaker They Suddenly Heard A Wild Impossible Mistake In Jazz That Could Only Have Been Heard Inside Their Own Imaginary Head, And That Is A New Art. Bop.
Art
Mistake
Past
Live, Travel, Adventure, Bless, And Don't Be Sorry.
Inspirational
Life
Beautiful
Thinking Of The Stars Night After Night I Begin To Realize 'the Stars Are Words' And All The Innumerable Worlds In The Milky Way Are Words, And So Is This World Too. And I Realize That No Matter Where I Am, Whether In A Little Room Full Of Thought, Or In This Endless Universe Of Stars And Mountains, It’s All In My Mind.
Stars
Night
Thinking
Ah, You Always Go For The Ones Who Don't Really Want You
Want
Anybody Doesn't Like These Pitchers Don't Like Potry, See? Anybody Don't Like Potry Go Home See Television Shots Of Big Hatted Cowboys Being Tolerated By Kind Horses. Robert Frank, Swiss, Unobtrusive, Nice, With That Little Camera That He Raises And Snaps With One Hand He Sucked A Sad Poem Right Out Of America Onto Film, Taking Rank Among The Poets Of The World. To Robert Frank I Now Give This Message: You Got Eyes.
Horse
Nice
Eye
Absolutely No Way To Escape Enigmans.
Way
All Of Life Is A Foreign Country.
Life
Country
Travel
If Critics Say Your Work Stinks It's Because They Want It To Stink And They Can Make It Stink By Scaring You Into Conformity With Their Comfortable Little Standards. Standards So Low That They Can No Longer Be Considered "dangerous" But Set In Place In Their Compartmental Understandings.
Wisdom
Art
Powerful
I Felt Like Lying Down By The Side Of The Trail And Remembering It All
Lying
Sides
Remember
Pain Or Love Or Danger Makes You Real Again.
Wisdom
Pain
Real
I Didn't Know What To Say. I Felt Like Crying, Goddammit Everybody In The World Wants An Explanation For Your Acts And For Your Very Being.
Life
World
Want
We Are Nothing. - Tomorrow We May Be Die. We Are Nothing. - You And Me.
May
Tomorrow
Dies
Fear Life But Don't Die, Your Alone, Everybody's Alone, Oh Cody Pomeray You Can't Win You Can't Lose All Is Ephemeral All Is Hurt
Hurt
Winning
Ephemeral
I Don't Wanta Hear All Your Word Descriptions Of Words Words Words You Made Up All Winter, Man I Wanta Be Enlightened By Actions.
Winter
Men
Action
February Dawn -- Frost On The Path Where I Paced All Winter.
Winter
Dawn
Frost
Happy. Just In My Swim Shorts, Barefooted, Wild-haired, In The Red Fire Dark, Singing, Swigging Wine, Spitting, Jumping, Running - That's The Way To Live. All Alone And Free In The Soft Sands Of The Beach.
Running
Beach
Wine
Once There Was Louis Armstrong Blowing His Beautiful Top In The Muds Of New Orleans; Before Him The Mad Musicians Who Had Paraded On Official Days And Broke Up Their Sousa Marches Into Ragtime. Then There Was Swing, And Roy Eldridge, Vigorous And Virile, Blasting The Horn For Everything It Had In Waves Of Power And Logic And Subtlety - Leaning Into It With Glittering Eyes And A Lovely Smile And Sending It Out Broadcast To Rock The Jazz World.
Beautiful
Eye
New Orleans
The Smog Was Heavy, My Eyes Were Weeping From It, The Sun Was Hot, The Air Stank, A Regular Hell Is L.a.
Eye
Air
Hot
My Whole Wretched Life Swam Before My Weary Eyes, And I Realized No Matter What You Do It's Bound To Be A Waste Of Time In The End So You Might As Well Go Mad.
Wisdom
Eye
Mad
It's Only Through Form That We Can Realize Emptiness
Emptiness
Realizing
Form
La Is The Loneliest And Most Brutal Of American Cities; Ny Gets God-awful Cold In The Winter But There's A Feeling Of Wacky Comradeship Somewhere In Some Streets. La Is A Jungle.
Winter
Cities
Feelings
Don't Think Of Words When You Stop But To See Picture Better.
Inspirational
Thinking
Vision
They Spent All Week Saving Pennies And Went Out Saturdays To Spend Fifty Bucks In Three Hours.
Three
Saving
Fifty
The Happiness Consists In Realizing That It Is All A Great Strange Dream.
Dream
Wisdom
Yoga
The Road Must Eventually Lead To The Whole World.
Travel
World
Whole
Cliches Are Truisms And All Truisms Are True
Cliche
Truism
The Closer You Get To Real Matter, Rock Air Fire And Wood, Boy, The More Spiritual The World Is.
Spiritual
Wisdom
Real
Your Buddhism Has Made You Mean Ray And Makes You Even Afraid To Take Your Clothes Off For A Simple Healthy Orgy
Mean
Buddhism
Simple
I Came To A Point Where I Needed Solitude And Just Stop The Machine Of ‘thinking’ And ‘enjoying’ What They Call ‘living’, I Just Wanted To Lie In The Grass And Look At The Clouds.
Life
Lying
Thinking
You'd Be Surprised How Little I Knew Even Up To Yesterday
Wisdom
Yesterday
Littles
Some Of My Most Neurotically Fierce Bitterness Is The Result Of Realizing How Untrue People Have Become.
People
Bitterness
Fierce
It's All Too Much And Not Enough At The Same Time.
Tattoo
Too Much
Enough
Dharma Bums Refusing To Subscribe To The General Demand That They Consume Production And Therefore Have To Work For The Privilege Of Consuming, All That Cramp They Didn't Really Want Anyway Such As Refrigerators, Tv Sets, Cars, At Least New Fancy Cars, Certain Hair Oils And Deodorants And General Junk You Finally Always See A Week Later In The Garbage Anyway, All Of Them Imprisoned In A System Of Work, Produce, Consume, Work, Produce, Consume.
Hair
Fancy Cars
Oil
The First Sip [of Tea] Is Joy, The Second Is Gladness, The Third Is Serenity, The Fourth Is Madness, The Fifth Is Ecstasy.
Joy
Serenity
Tea
It's Hard To Explain And Best Thing To Do Is Not Be False.
Things To Do
Best Things
Hard
He Seems To Me To Be Headed For His Ideal Fate, Which Is Compulsive Psychosis Dashed With A Jigger Of Psychopathic Irresponsibility And Violence
Fate
Psychosis
Violence
And You Have Been Forever, And Will Be Forever, And All The Worrisome Smashings Of Your Foot On Innocent Cupboard Doors It Was Only The Void Pretending To Be A Man Pretending Not To Know The Void.
Men
Doors
Feet
Beautiful Insane In The Rain
Beautiful
Rain
Insane
I Realized Either I Was Crazy Or The World Was Crazy; And I Picked On The World. And Of Course I Was Right.
Crazy
World
I Realized
I Can't Think Of Anybody...who Knows The Sum And Substance Of What I Know And Feel And Cry About In My Secret Self All The Time When I Don't Feel Strong, The Sorrows Of Time And Personality, And Can Therefore On All Levels Make It All The Way With Me
Strong
Thinking
Self
Rather, I Think One Should Write, As Nearly As Possible, As If He Were The First Person On Earth And Was Humbly And Sincerly Putting On Paper That Which He Saw And Experienced And Loved And Lost; What His Passing Thoughts Were And His Sorrows And Desires.
Writing
Thinking
Sorrow
Bein Crazy Is The Least Of My Worries.
Crazy
Worry
Our Radio Plays Rhythm And Blues As We Pass The Joint Back And Forth In Jutjawed Silence Both Looking Ahead With Big Private Thoughts Now So Vast We Can't Communicate Them Anymore And If We Tried It Would Take A Million Years And A Billion Books - Too Late, Too Late, The History Of Everything We've Seen Together And Separately Has Become A Library In Itself - The Shelves Pile Higher - They're Full Of Misty Documents Or Documents Of The Mist-.
Book
Years
Play
Practice Kindness All Day To Everybody And You Will Realize You're Already In Heaven Now.
Kindness
Practice
Heaven
Because Anybody Can Write, But Not Everybody Invents New Forms Of Writing. Gertrude Stein Invented A New Form Of Writing And Her Imitators Are Just "talents."
Writing
Judging
Feelings
Maybe That's What Life Is... A Wink Of The Eye And Winking Stars.
Life
Stars
Eye
No Matter How You Travel, How 'successful' Your Tour, Or Foreshortened, You Always Learn Something And Learn To Change Your Thoughts.
Travel
Successful
Matter
But On Top Of All That, The Feelings About Princess, I'd Also Gone Through An Entire Year Of Celibacy Based On My Feeling That Lust Was The Direct Cause Of Birth Which Was The Direct Cause Of Suffering And Death And I Had Really No Lie Come To A Point Where I Regarded Lust As Offensive And Even Cruel. "pretty Girls Make Graves," Was My Saying, Whenever I'd Had To Turn My Head Around Involuntarily To Stare At The In­comparable Pretties Of Indian Mexico.
Girl
Lying
Princess
He Had No Place He Could Stay In Without Getting Tired Of It And Because There Was Nowhere To Go But Everywhere, Keep Rolling Under The Stars.
Wisdom
Travel
Stars
What Is That Feeling When You're Driving Away From People And They Recede On The Plain Till You See Their Specks Dispersing? - It's The Too-huge World Vaulting Us, And It's Good-by. But We Lean Forward To The Next Crazy Venture Beneath The Skies.
Goodbye
Travel
Crazy
But There's No Joy At All, People Say "oh Well He's Drunk And Happy Let Him Sleep It Off"--the Poor Drunkard Is *crying*--he's Crying For His Mother And Father And Great Brother And Great Friend, He's Crying For Help. (p.111)
Mother
Brother
Father
For The First Time In My Life The Weather Was Not Something That Touched Me, That Caressed Me, Froze Or Sweated Me, But Became Me.
Wisdom
Weather
Firsts
I'd Rather Be Thin Than Famous But I'm Fat Paste That In Your Broadway Show
Broadway
Fats
Shows
I'm Going To Marry My Novels And Have Little Short Stories For Children.
Wisdom
Children
Stories
Swinging On Delicate Hinges The Autumn Leaf Almost Off The Stem.
Fall
Autumn
Leafs
As Far As I'm Concerned The Only Thing To Do Is Sit In A Room And Get Drunk
Wisdom
Drunk
Rooms
I Have Fallen In Love With You, God. Take Care Of Us All, One Way Or The Other.
Love You
Care
Way
Goddamn It, Feeling Is What I Like In Art, Not Craftiness And The Hiding Of Feelings.
Art
Feelings
Hiding
Ah Japhy You Taught Me The Final Lesson Of Them All, You Can't Fall Off A Mountain.
Fall
Mountain
Finals
Don't Touch Me, I'm Full Of Snakes.
Snakes
Touch Me
You Don't Realize What A Strain It Is On The Nerves To Write Or Think-of-writing All Day Long, And To Sleep Full Of Nervous Dreams, And To Wake Up Not Knowing Who One Is: This All Stems From Anxiety About Finishing The Book, About Time 'growing Short', Etc., And The Perpetual Strain Of Invention.
Dream
Book
Writing
Ah, If I Could Realize, If I Could Forget Myself And Devote My Meditations To The Freeing, The Awakening And The Blessedness Of All Living Creatures Everywhere I'd Realize What There Is, Is Ecstasy.
Meditation
Awakening
Realizing
You Aren't Ever Going To Be Anything In This World Unless You Do What You Want To Do, When You Want To Do It--don't Plan Anything, Just Go Out And Do It.
World
Want
Plans
I Want A Blaze Of Light To Flame In Me Forever In A Timeless, Dear Love Of Everything. And Why Should I Pretend To Want Anything Else?
Light
Flames
Forever
Burroughs Is The Greatest Satirical Writer Since Jonathan Swift.
Satirical
Burroughs
Some's Bastards, Some's Ain't. That's The Score.
Score
Jumping From Boulder To Boulder And Never Falling, With A Heavy Pack, Is Easier Than It Sounds; You Just Can't Fall When You Get Into The Rhythm Of The Dance.
Fall
Jumping
Boulders
Because I Cannot Write My Native Language And Have No Native Home Anymore, And Am Amazed By That Horrible Homelessness Of All French-canadian S Abroad In America.
Home
Writing
Native Language
And There In The Blue Air I Saw For The First Time, Far Off, The Great Snowy Tops Of The Rocky Mountains. I Had To Get To Denver At Once.
Air
Blue
Mountain
The Beat Generation, That Was A Vision That We Had, John Clellon Holmes And I, And Allen Ginsberg In An Even Wilder Way, In The Late Forties, Of A Generation Of Crazy, Illuminated Hipsters Suddenly Rising And Roaming America, Serious, Bumming And Hitchhiking Everywhere, Ragged, Beatific, Beautiful In An Ugly Graceful New Way.
Beautiful
Hipster
Crazy
Whenever Spring Comes To New York I Can't Stand The Suggestion Of The Land That Come Blowing Over The River From New Jersey And I've Got To Go. So I Went.
New York
Spring
Land
My Witness Is The Empty Sky.
Travel
Aquarius
Sky
Rocks Are Space, And Space Is Illusion.
Rocks
Space
Illusion
Mankind Is Like Dogs, Not Gods - As Long As You Don't Get Mad They'll Bite You - But Stay Mad And You'll Never Be Bitten. Dogs Don't Respect Humility And Sorrow.
Dog
Humility
Long
I Like Too Many Things And Get All Confused And Hung-up Running From One Falling Star To Another Till I Drop. This Is The Night, What It Does To You. I Had Nothing To Offer Anybody Except My Own Confusion.
Life
Running
Stars
..and That Was The One Distinct Time In My Life, The Strangest Moment Of All, When I Didnt Know Who I Was
Moments
Road Life
Knows
I Am Young Now And Can Look Upon My Body And Soul With Pride. But It Will Be Mangled Soon, And Later It Will Begin To Disintegrate, And Then I Shall Die, And Die Conclusively. How Can We Face Such A Fact, And Not Live In Fear?
Pride
Soul
Looks
Burroughs Is The Greatest Satirical Writer Since Jonathan Swift. . . . The Net Result Of Naked Lunch Will Be To Make People Shudder At Their Own Lies, Will Be To Make Them Open Up And Be Straight With One Another. Swift And Rabelais And Sterne Accomplished A Step In That Direction, And Burroughs Another.
Lying
Lunch
People
And What Does The Rain Say At Night In A Small Town, What Does The Rain Have To Say? Who Walks Beneath Dripping Melancholy Branches Listening To The Rain? Who Is There In The Rain’s Million-needled Blurring Splash, Listening To The Grave Music Of The Rain At Night, September Rain, September Rain, So Dark And Soft? Who Is There Listening To Steady Level Roaring Rain All Around, Brooding And Listening And Waiting, In The Rain-washed, Rain-twinkled Dark Of Night?
Rain
Dark
Night
Are We Fallen Angels Who Didn't Want To Believe That Nothing Is Nothing And So Were Born To Lose Our Loved Ones And Dear Friends One By One And Finally Our Own Life, To See It Proved?
Wisdom
Believe
Angel
When You Start Separating People From Their Rivers, What Have You Got? Bureaucracy!
Rivers
People
Bureaucracy
This Was A Manuscript Of The Night We Couldn’t Read.
Night
Manuscripts
Nothing Ever Happened - Not Even This
Happened
It Is Not My Fault That Certain So-called Bohemian Elements Have Found In My Writings Something To Hang Their Peculiar Beatnik Theories On.
Writing
Peculiar
Elements
The Air Was So Sweet In New Orleans It Seemed To Come In Soft Bandannas; And You Could Smell The River And Really Smell The People, And Mud, And Molasses, And Every Kind Of Tropical Exhalation, With Your Nose Suddenly Removed From The Dry Ices Of A Northern Winter.
Sweet
Winter
New Orleans
...the Tale That's Told For No Other Reason But Companionship, Which Is Another (and My Favorite) Definition Of Literature, The Tale That's Told For Companionship And To Teach Something Religious, Of Religious Reverence, About Real Life, In This Real World Which Literature Should (and Here Does) Reflect.
Religious
Real
Doe
The Whole Mad Swirl Of Everything That Was To Come Began Then.
Mad
Literature
Swirls
When You've Understood This Scripture, Throw It Away. If You Can't Understand This Scripture, Throw It Away. I Insist On Your Freedom.
Wisdom
Positivity
Scripture
We Tiptoed Around Each Other Like Heartbreaking New Friends.
Heartbreaking
New Friends
Something Good Will Come Out Of All Things Yet — And It Will Be Golden And Eternal Just Like That.
All Things
Good Will
Listen To The Silence Inside The Illusion Of The World, And You Will Remember The Lesson You Forgot
Silence
World
Lessons
We Agreed To Love Each Other Madly.
Love Each Other
The Cause Of The World's Woe Is Birth, The Cure Of The World's Woe Is A Bent Stick.
World
Woe
Causes
Keep It Kickwriting At All Costs Too, That Is, Write Only What Kicks You And Keeps You Overtime Awake From Sheer Mad Joy.
Writing
Mad
Joy
Write What You Want Bottomless From Bottom Of The Mind.
Writing
Mind
Want
...but I Preferred Reading The American Landscape As We Went Along. Every Bump, Rise, And Stretch In It Mystified My Longing.
Reading
Bumps
Landscape
So I Rushed Past The Pretty Girls, And The Prettiest Girls In The World Live In Des Moines.
Girl
Past
World
Never Mistake Talking About Writing For Actual Writing.
Mistake
Writing
Talking
An Awful Realization That I Have Been Fooling Myself All My Life Thinking There Was A Next Thing To Do To Keep The Show Going And Actually I'm Just A Sick Clown And So Is Everybody Else
Thinking
Sick
Realization
I'd Better Be A Poet Or Lay Down Dead.
Poet
Lays
Roaring Dreams Take Place In A Perfectly Silent Mind. Now That We Know This, Throw The Raft Away.
Dream
Wisdom
Mind
But Night Would Come And With It The Mountain Moon And The Lake Would Be Moon - Laned And I'd Go Out And Sit In The Grass And Meditate Facing West, Wishing There Were A Personal God In All This Impersonal Matter.
Wish
Matter
Forgive Everyone For Your Own Sins And Be Sure To Tell Them You Love Them Which You Do.
Wisdom
Forgiving
Sin
To Think That So Much Comes To So Little, To Think That Life Is Really Short.
Thinking
Littles
Life Is
The More Ups And Downs, The More Joy I Feel. The Greater The Fear, The Greater The Happiness I Feel.
Joy
Feels
Ups & Downs
You Have Absolutely No Regard But Yourself And Your Damned Kicks. All You Think About Is What's Hanging Between Your Legs And How Much Money Or Fun You Can Get Out Of People And Then You Just Throw Them Aside. Not Only That But You're Silly About It. It Never Occurs To You That Life Is Serious And That There Are People Trying To Make Something Decent Out Of It Instead Of Just Goofing All The Time.
Fun
Silly
Thinking
It Was The Work Of The Quiet Mountains, This Torrent Of Purity At My Feet.
Feet
Mountain
Quiet
You Don't Know What To Say To Me Because The Kingdom Is Within...flesh And Blood's Dream...so You Fly Now, Pay Later, All Of Us...i Mean Actually It's Pay Now, Fly Later
Dream
Mean
Blood
What A Horror It Would Have Been If The World Was Real, Because If The World Was Real, It Would Be Immortal.
Real
Would Be
World
Your Mind Makes Out The Orange By Seeing It, Hearing It, Touching It, Smelling It, Tasting It And Thinking About It But Without This Mind, You Call It, The Orange Would Not Be Seen Or Heard Or Smelled Or Tasted Or Even Mentally Noticed, It's Actually, That Orange, Depending On Your Mind To Exist! Don't You See That? By Itself It's A No-thing, It's Really Mental, It's Seen Only Of Your Mind. In Other Words It's Empty And Awake.
Thinking
Orange
Touching
But, Outside Of Being A Sweet Little Girl, She Was Awfully Dumb And Capable Of Doing Horrible Things.
Girl
Sweet
Dumb
I'm Catholic And I Can't Commit Suicide, But I Plan To Drink Myself To Death.
Suicide
Drinking
Beer
Something Great Is About To Happen To Me: I'm About To Love Somebody Very Much.
Happens
Mankind Will Someday Realize That We Are Actually In Contact With The Dead And With The Other World, Whatever It Is; Right Now We Could Predict, If We Only Exerted Enough Mental Will, What Is Going To Happen Within The Next Hundred Years And Be Able To Take Steps To Avoid All Kinds Of Catastrophes. When A Man Dies He Undergoes A Mutation In His Brain That We Know Nothing About Now But Which Will Be Very Clear Someday If Scientists Get On The Ball. The Bastards Right Now Are Only Interested In Seeing If They Can Blow Up The World.
Men
Blow
Years
Geniuses Can Be Scintillating And Geniuses Can Be Somber, But It's That Inescapable Sorrowful Depth That Shines Through-originality.
Writing
Shining
Genius
All I Wanted And All Neal Wanted And All Anybody Wanted Was Some Kind Of Penetration Into The Heart Of Things Where, Like In A Womb, We Could Curl Up And Sleep The Ecstatic Sleep That Burroughs Was Experiencing With A Good Big Mainline Shot Of M. And Advertising Executives In Ny Were Experiencing With Twelve Scotch & Sodas In Stouffers Before They Made The Drunkard's Train To Westchester---but Without Hangovers.
Hangover
Heart
Sleep
Equally Empty, Equally To Be Loved, Equally A Coming Buddha
Empty
She Spoke Of Evenings In The Country Making Popcorn On The Porch. Once This Would Have Gladdened My Heart But Because Her Heart Was Not Glad When She Said It I Knew There Was Nothing In It But The Idea Of What One Should Do.
Country
Heart
Ideas
In My Medicine Cabinet, The Winter Fly Has Died Of Old Age.
Winter
Medicine
Age
Somewhere Along The Line I Knew There'd Be Girls, Visions, Everything; Somewhere Along The Line The Pearl Would Be Handed To Me.
Girl
Vision
Would Be
Remove Literary, Grammatical And Syntactical Inhibition.
Remove
Inhibitions
Walking On Water Wasn't Built In A Day.
Water
Walking On Water
Walking
We Wandered In A Frenzy And A Dream (301).
Dream
Frenzy
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 John, This Is Really A Beat Generation'; And He Leapt Up And Said, 'that's It, That's Right!'
Thinking
Trying
Generations
Colleges Being Nothing But Grooming Schools For The Middle-class Non-identity Which Usually Finds Its Perfect Expression On The Outskirts Of The Campus In Rows Of Well-to-do Houses With Lawns And Television Sets In Each Living Room With Everybody Looking At The Same Thing And Thinking The Same Thing At The Same Time While The Japhies Of The World Go Prowling In The Wilderness To Hear The Voice Crying In The Wilderness, To Find The Ecstacy Of The Stars, To Find The Dark Mysterious Secret Of The Origin Of Faceless Wonderless Crapulous Civilization.
Stars
School
Dark
Then It's Goodbye, Sangsara For Me Besides, Girls Aren't As Good As They Look And Samadhi Is Better Than You Think When It Starts In Hitting Your Head In With Buzz Of Glittergold Heaven's Angels, Wailing, Saying We've Been Waiting For You Since Morning, Jack Why Were You So Long Dallying In The Sooty Room? This Transcendental Brilliance Is The Better Part (of Nothingness I Sing) Okay. Quit. Mad. Stop.
Girl
Goodbye
Morning
Ah, It Was A Fine Night, A Warm Night, A Wine-drinking Night, A Moony Night, And A Night To Hug Your Girl And Talk And Spit And Be Heavengoing.
Girl
Wisdom
Drinking
The Details Are The Life Of It, I Insist, Say Everything On Your Mind, Don’t Hold Back, Don’t Analyze Or Anything As You Go Along, Say It Out.
Wisdom
Mind
Details
Understanding Quotes: Their Essence and Application

Quotes, or quotations, are powerful tools in communication, encapsulating ideas, emotions, and wisdom in concise expressions. They serve various purposes across different contexts, from academic writing to everyday conversation.

1. Defining Quotes

A quote is a repetition of someone else's statement or thoughts. It can be a direct replication of words spoken or written by another individual, often used to support arguments, provide evidence, or convey profound insights.


2. The Importance of Quotes

2.1. Enhancing Credibility

Incorporating quotes from authoritative sources can bolster the credibility of your work. By referencing experts or primary sources, you demonstrate thorough research and a solid foundation for your arguments.


2.2. Providing Evidence

Quotes serve as concrete evidence to support claims. In academic and professional writing, they validate points made, offering readers a basis to trust the information presented.


2.3. Conveying Emotions and Perspectives

Quotes can encapsulate emotions and perspectives succinctly. They allow writers to express complex feelings or viewpoints through the words of others, often more eloquently than paraphrasing.


3. Types of Quotes

3.1. Direct Quotes

Direct quotes involve copying the exact words from a source, enclosed in quotation marks. They are used when the original wording is significant or particularly well-expressed.


3.2. Indirect Quotes (Paraphrasing)

Indirect quotes restate the original message in your own words. While not enclosed in quotation marks, they still require proper attribution to the original source.


3.3. Block Quotes

Block quotes are lengthy direct quotations, formatted as a separate block of text. They are typically used for quotes exceeding a certain length, varying by citation style. For instance, in APA style, quotes longer than 40 words are formatted as block quotes.



4. Proper Usage of Quotes


4.1. Contextual Relevance

Ensure that the quote you choose is relevant to the topic and adds value to your content. Avoid inserting quotes solely for decorative purposes.


4.2. Integration into Your Writing

Seamlessly integrate quotes into your writing. Introduce them appropriately and follow up with analysis or commentary to connect them to your main points.


4.3. Attribution and Citation

Always attribute quotes to their original authors and provide proper citations according to the required style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).


5. Common Mistakes to Avoid


5.1. Overusing Quotes

Relying too heavily on quotes can overshadow your voice. Use them sparingly to support your arguments, not replace them.


5.2. Lack of Analysis

Presenting a quote without analysis or explanation can leave readers questioning its relevance. Always follow up with your interpretation or discussion.


5.3. Misquoting or Taking Out of Context

Ensure that quotes are accurate and not taken out of context, as this can mislead readers and undermine your credibility.



6. Quotes in Different Contexts


6.1. Academic Writing

In academic writing, quotes are used to support arguments, provide evidence, and engage with existing literature. Proper citation is crucial to avoid plagiarism.


6.2. Journalism

Journalists use quotes to provide firsthand accounts, add authenticity, and present multiple perspectives within a story.


6.3. Literature and Creative Writing

In literature, quotes can be used to convey character voices, themes, and stylistic elements. They enrich narratives and provide depth to storytelling.



7. Punctuation and Formatting


Understanding the correct punctuation and formatting of quotes is essential:


Quotation Marks: Always enclose direct quotes within quotation marks.


Punctuation Placement: In American English, periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks, while colons and semicolons are placed outside.


Block Quotes: For longer quotes, format them as block quotes without quotation marks, and indent the entire block.



8. Ethical Considerations


Ethical use of quotes involves accurate representation, proper attribution, and respect for intellectual property. Misuse can lead to plagiarism, which carries serious academic and professional consequences.

9. Tools for Managing Quotes


Utilize tools like citation generators and plagiarism checkers to manage quotes effectively. These tools help ensure proper formatting and originality in your writing.



Conclusion


Quotes are invaluable in enriching content, providing evidence, and conveying complex ideas succinctly. When used appropriately, they enhance the quality and credibility of your writing. Always ensure relevance, proper integration, and ethical usage to maximize their impact.


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