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?

— Jack Kerouac

The Grim Reaper isn't grim at all; he's a life-saver. He isn't grim because he isn't anything. . . . He is nothing. And nothing is a hell of a lot better than anything. So long, boys.

— Jack Kerouac

I was amazed by the fact that I was not the only writer living, not the only young man 'with a locomotive in his chest, and that's a fact,' not the only youth with a million hungers and not one of them appeasable, not the only one who is lonely among multitudes, and does not know why.

— Jack Kerouac

A poet is a blind optimist.The world is against him formany reasons. But thepoet persists. He believesthat he is on the right track,no matter what any of his fellow men say. In hiseternal search for truth, thepoet is alone.He tries to be timeless in a society built on time.

— Jack Kerouac

A man cannot impart the true feeling of things to others unless he himself has experienced what he is trying to tell of.

— Jack Kerouac