Ken Kesey Quotes

He’s like an old clock the won’t tell time but won’t stop neither with the hands bend out of shape and the face bare of numbers and the alarm rusted silent, an old worthless clock that keeps ticking and cuckooing without meaning nothing.

~ Ken Kesey

But if the strength ain't real, I recall thinking the very last thing that day, before I finally passed out, then the weakness sure enough is. Weakness is true and real. I used to accuse the kid of faking his weakness. But faking proves the weakness is real. Or you wouldn't be so weak as to fake it. No, you can't ever fake being weak. You can only fake being strong. . .

~ Ken Kesey

He knew you can't really be strong until you can see a funny side of things.

~ Ken Kesey

I can’t do nothing for you either, Billy. You know that. None of us can. You got to understand that as soon as a man goes to help somebody, he leaves himself wide open. He has to be cagey, Billy, you should know that as well as anyone. What could I do? I can’t fix your stuttering. I can’t wipe the razorblade scars off your wrists or the cigarette burns off the back of your hands. I can’t give you a new mother. And as far as the nurse riding you like this, rubbing your nose in your weakness till what little dignity you got left is gone and you shrink up to nothing from humiliation, I can’t do anything about that, either.

~ Ken Kesey

It’s fall coming, I thought, I can smell that sour-molasses smell of silage, clanging the air like a bell – smell like somebody’s been burning oak leaves, left them to smolder overnight because they’re too green.

~ Ken Kesey

turns me on so loud it's like no sound, everybody yelling at me hands over their ears from behind a glass wall, faces working around in talk circles but no sound from the mouths. my sound soaks up all other sound.

~ Ken Kesey

Loved. You can't use it in the past tense. Death does not stop that love at all.

~ Ken Kesey

People think love is an emotion. Love is good sense.

~ Ken Kesey

You can't really be strong until you see a funny side to things.

~ Ken Kesey

The Grateful Dead are our religion. This is a religion that doesn't pay homage to the God that all the other religions pay homage to.

~ Ken Kesey

It's time to move on to the next step in the psychedelic revolution. We've reached a certain point, but we're not moving any more.

~ Ken Kesey

Nowhere else in history has there ever been a flag that stands for the right to burn itself. This is the fractal of our flag. It stands for the right to destroy itself.

~ Ken Kesey

The truth doesn't have to do with cruelty, the truth has to do with mercy.

~ Ken Kesey

There's something about taking a plow and breaking new ground. It gives you energy.

~ Ken Kesey