Skip to content

Quotes from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest — Ken Kesey

1935–2001 United States

← All quotes by Ken Kesey

18 quotes

Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)

I'm so crazy I plan to vote for Eisenhower again this November.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)

But if they don't exist, how can a man see them?

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)

He who marches out of line hears another drum.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)

It's still hard for me to have a clear mind thinking on it. But it's the truth even if it didn't happen.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)

Damn, what a sorry-looking outfit. You boys don't look so crazy to me.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)

This is what I know. The ward is a factory for the Combine. It's for fixing up mistakes made in the neighborhoods and in the schools and in the churches, the hospital is.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)

But just as soon as we got to the pool he said he did wish something mighta been done, though, and dove into the water.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)

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.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)

One flew east, One flew west, One flew over the cuckoo's nest.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)

Mr. Bibbit, you might warn this Mr. Harding that I'm so crazy I admit to voting for Eisenhower.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)

They're out there.
Black boys in white suits up before me to commit sex acts in the hall and get it mopped up before I can catch them.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)

Alla you! Quit bugging me, goddammit!

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)

Along the western slopes of the Oregon Coastal Range . . . come look: the hysterical crashing of tributaries as they merge into the Wakonda Auga River . . .

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)

I can't help it. I was born a miscarriage. I had so many insults I died. I was born dead. I can't help it.... I'm tired.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)

Later, hiding in the latrine from the black boys, I'd take a look at my own self in the mirror and wonder how it was possible that anybody could manage such an enormous thing as being what he was.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)

You think I wuh-wuh-wuh-want to stay in here? You think I wouldn't like a con-con-vertible and a guh-guh-girl friend? But did you ever have people l-l-laughing at you? No, because you're so b-big and so tough! Well, I'm not big and tough.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)

I watched and tried to figure out what he would have done. I was only sure of one thing: he wouldn't have left something like that sit there in the day room with his name tacked on it for twenty or thirty years so the Big Nurse could use it as an example of what can happen if you buck the system. I was sure of that.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Ken Kesey (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.