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You don't lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case.

Ken Kesey

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Ken Kesey
Age: 66 †
Born: 1935
Born: September 17
Died: 2001
Died: November 10
Author
Essayist
Novelist
Writer
La Junta
Colorado
Kenneth Kesey
Kenneth Elton Kesey
Ken Elton Kesey
Ken E. Kesey
O. U. Levon
Making
Telling
Place
Case
Going
Lead
People
Leadership
Motivational
Cases
Leader
Pointing
Vision
Inspiring

More quotes by Ken Kesey

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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
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There’s no doubt in my mind that McMurphy’s won, but I’m not sure what.
Ken Kesey
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You’re just a young kid. What are you doin’ here? You oughta be out in a convertible, why… bird-doggin’ chicks and bangin’ beaver. What are ya doin’ here, for Christ’s sake? What’s funny about that? Jesus, I mean, you guys do nothin’ but complain about how you can’t stand it in this place here and then you haven’t got the guts just to walk out!
Ken Kesey
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Like a cartoon world, where the figures are flat and outlined in black, jerking through some kind of goofy story that might be real funny if it weren't for the cartoon figures being real guys.
Ken Kesey
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Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing.
Ken Kesey
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The raw materials of reality without the glue of time are materials adrift and reality is as meaningless as the balsa parts of a model airplane scattered to the wind.
Ken Kesey
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Ocean, Ocean I'll beat you in the end.
Ken Kesey
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People think love is an emotion. Love is good sense.
Ken Kesey
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Men are forever eager to press drink upon those they consider their superiors, hoping thereby to eliminate that distinction between them.... And women, when confronted by superiors, substitute for drink the crippling liquor of their sex.
Ken Kesey
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What do you think you are, for Chrissake, crazy or somethin'? Well you're not! You're not! You're no crazier than the average asshole out walkin' around on the streets and that's it.
Ken Kesey
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Ritual is necessary for us to know anything.
Ken Kesey
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I felt like you can write forever, but you have a short time to raise a family. And I think a family is a lot more important than writing.
Ken Kesey
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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
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But the rest are even scared to open up and laugh. You know, that's the first thing that got me about this place, that there wasn't anybody laughing. I haven't heard a real laugh since I came through that door, do you know that? Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing.
Ken Kesey
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Never before did I realize that mental illness could have the aspect of power, power. Think of it: perhaps the more insane a man is, the more powerful he could become. Hitler an example. Fair makes the old brain reel, doesn't it?
Ken Kesey
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That ain't me, that ain't my face. It wasn't even me when I was trying to be that face. I wasn't even really me them I was just being the way I looked, the way people wanted.
Ken Kesey
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She asked if we were calm enough for her to take off the cuffs, and McMurphy nodded. He had slumped over with his head hung and his elbows between his knees and looked completely exhausted--it hadn't occurred to me that it was just as hard for him to stand straight as it was for me.
Ken Kesey
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I've enjoyed being a famous writer-except that every once in a while you have to write something.
Ken Kesey
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Now, you’re either on the bus or you’re off the bus.
Ken Kesey
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I sometimes have these spells of compulsive truth. But as Lady Macbeth would say, The fit is momentary.
Ken Kesey