He knows that you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy. Ken Kesey More Quotes by Ken Kesey More Quotes From Ken Kesey I been away a long time. Ken Kesey long-time long Don't say it...I've seen too many loves sundered by too much needless honesty. Ken Kesey honesty too-much But, gee," the other nurse says, "what on earth would MAKE a man want to do something like disrupt the ward for, Miss Ratched? What possible motive...?""You seem to forget, MISS Flinn, that this is an institution for the insane. Ken Kesey missing nurse men But I remember one thing: Ken Kesey dumb memorable people A sound of cornered-animal fear and hate and surrender and defiance . . . like the last sound the treed and shot and falling animal makes as the dogs get him, when he finally doesn't care about anything but himself and his dying. Ken Kesey hate dog fear The most work he did on [the urinals] was to run a brush once or twice apiece, singing some song as loud as he could in time to the swishing brush; then he'd splash in some Clorox and he'd be through. ... And when the Big Nurse...came in to check McMurphy's cleaning assignment personally, she brought a little compact mirror and she held it under the rim of the bowls. She walked along shaking her head and saying, "Why, this is an outrage... an outrage..." at every bowl. McMurphy sidled right along beside her, winking down his nose and saying in answer, "No; that's a toilet bowl...a TOILET bowl. Ken Kesey mcmurphy running song More was revealed in a human face than a human being can bear face to face. Ken Kesey humans bears faces I sometimes have these spells of compulsive truth. But as Lady Macbeth would say, "The fit is momentary." Ken Kesey lady-macbeth truth sometimes Anesthetized time; nothing moves and everything is at once. Ken Kesey time moving If grass were legalized, it would help our drug problem enormously. Ken Kesey drug literature helping I used to think we were going to win in the '60s. Nixon went out and I thought we won. Ken Kesey apology winning thinking But if they don't exist, how can a man see them? Ken Kesey ifs men life Major part of the Southern California pop scene in the 60s Ken Kesey love-is life thinking Leary can get a part of my mind that's kind of rusted shut grinding again, just by being around him and talking. Ken Kesey literature mind talking No one's ever dared come out and say it before, but there's not a man among us that doesn't think it, that doesn't feel just as you do about her and the whole business - feel it somewhere down deep in his scared little soul. Ken Kesey feels-just men thinking They can't tell so much about you if you got your eyes closed. Ken Kesey cuckoos eye life His whole body shakes with the strain as he tries to lift something he knows he can't lift, something everybody knows he can't lift. But, for just a second, when we hear the cement grind at our feet, we think, by golly, he might do it. Ken Kesey feet trying thinking 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 strong real kids - he's finished with that; it's like an old clock that won't tell time but won't stop neither, with the hands bent out of shape and the face bare of numbers and the alarm bell rusted silent, an old worthless clock that just keeps ticking and cuckooing without meaning nothing. Ken Kesey alarms numbers hands He knows that there's no better way in the world to aggravate somebody who's trying to make it hard for you than by acting like you're not bothered. Ken Kesey acting trying world