One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Quotes

“Then old Pete was on his feet. “I’m tired!” was what he shouted, a strong, angry copper tone to his voice that no one had ever heard before. Everyone hushed. They were somehow ashamed. It was as if he had suddenly said something that was real and true and important and it had put all their childish hollering to shame.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“What do you think?” Harding says. McMurphy starts. “She’s got one hell of a set of chabobs,” is all he can think of. “Big as Old Lady Ratched’s.” “I didn’t mean physically, my friend, I mean what do you—” “Hell’s bells, Harding!” McMurphy yells suddenly. “I don’t know what to think! What do you want out of me? A marriage counsellor? All I know is this: nobody’s very big in the first place, and it looks to me like everybody spends their whole life tearing everybody else down. I know what you want me to think; you want me to feel sorry for you, to think she’s a real bitch. Well, you didn’t make her feel like any queen either. Well, screw you and ‘what do you think?’ I’ve got worries of my own without getting hooked with yours. So just quit!” He glares around the library at the other patients. “Alla you! Quit bugging me, goddammit!” And”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“The more he tries to stop it, the faster it goes. When he lets his hands and face move like they want to and doesn’t try to hold them back, they flow and gesture in a way that’s real pretty to watch, but when he worries about them and tries to hold back he becomes a wild, jerky puppet doing a high-strung dance. Everything is moving faster and faster, and his voice is speeding up to match.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“The walls are white as the white suits, polished clean as a refrigerator door, and the black face and hands seem to float against it like a ghost.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“Mostly, I'd just like to look over the country around the gorge again, just to bring some of it clear in my mind again. I been away a long time.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“Elveszni talán nem is olyan rossz.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“The secret of being a top-notch con man is being able to know what the mark wants, and how to make him think he’s getting it. I”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“Nobody can help. And the more I think about how nothing can be helped, the faster the fog rolls in.

And I’m glad when it gets thick enough you’re lost in it and can let go, and be safe again.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“They’ve still got their problems, just like all of us. They’re still sick men in lots of ways. But at least there’s that: they are sick men now. No more rabbits, Mack. Maybe they can be well men someday. I can’t say.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“It’s like each face was a sign like one of those “I’m Blind” signs the dago accordion players in Portland hung around their necks, only these signs say “I’m tired” or “I’m scared” or “I’m dying of a bum liver” or “I’m all bound up with machinery and people pushing me alla time.” I can read all the signs, it don’t make any difference how little the print gets.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“There is generally one person in every situation you must never underestimate the power of.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“Hell of a life. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Puts a man in one confounded bind, I’d say.” McMurphy”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“Because he knows 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. He knows there’s a painful side;”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“My friend, that, as anyone can see, is not a hotel; it's a depot.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“E világ…az erőseké, barátom! Létezésünk szertartása azon alapszik, hogy az erősek a gyengéken híznak. Így van, tudomásul kell vennünk. Nincs rendben, de még ez a legjobb megoldás. Fogadjuk el, mint a természet törvényét mirajtunk. A nyulak is elfogadják kiosztott szerepüket ebben a szertartásban, és erősebbnek ismerik el a farkast. Védekezésül viszont a nyúl ijedős és ravasz, és likat váj a földbe, abba bújik, ha a farkas arra csatangol. Így éli túl a veszélyt. Tudja, mi telik tőle. Párharcra nem hívja ki a farkast.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“I wanted to reach over and touch the place where he was tattooed, to see if he was still alive. He's layin' awful quiet, I told myself, I ought to touch him to see he's still alive... that's a lie. I know he's still alive. That ain't the reason I want to touch him. I want to touch him because he's a man. That's a lie too. There's other men around. I could touch them. I want to touch him because I'm one of these queers! But that's a lie too. That's one fear hiding behind another. If I was one of these queers I'd want to do other things with him. I just want to touch him because he's who he is.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“But if they don’t exist, how can a man see them?”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“When a man showed up you didn't want to look at his face and he didn't want to look at yours, because it's painful to see somebody so clear that it's like looking inside him, but then neither did you want to look away and lose him completely. You had a choice: you could either strain and look at things that appeared in front of you in the fog, as painful as it might be, or you could relax and lose yourself.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“Whoever comes in the door is usually disappointing, but there is always a chance otherwise. And when a key hits the lock, all the heads come up like there's strings on them.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“I'll trim you babies like little lambs”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“Ez nem én vagyok. Ez nem lehet énnekem az arcom. Az se én voltam, aki ezt az arcot először fölpróbáltam. Se akkor, se most – csak amit az emberek kinéznek belőlem, úgy nézek ki. Mintha kinézetre sose lettem volna én.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“– Azzal együtt megpróbáltam – mondja. – Annyi azért kitellett tőlem, a büdös istenit, hogy megpróbáltam, nem igaz?”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“We’d just shared the last beer and slung the empty can out the window at a stop sign and were just leaning back to get the feel of the day, swimming in that kind of tasty drowsiness that comes over you after a day of going hard at something you enjoy doing—half sunburned and half drunk and keeping awake only because you wanted to savor the taste as long as you could. I noticed vaguely that I was getting so’s I could see some good in the life around me. McMurphy was teaching me. I was feeling better than I’d remembered feeling since I was a kid, when everything was good and the land was still singing kids’ poetry to me.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“Electricity through the head. Man, that's like electrocuting a guy for murder.'
'The reasons for both activities are much more closely related than you might think; they are both cures.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“Frontal lobe castration. I guess if she can't cut below the belt she'll do it above the eyes.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“Sabe que es preciso reírse de las cosas para m antener el equilibrio, para im pedir que el m undo acabe enloqueciéndote. Sabe que las cosas tienen su lado triste pero no quiere que el dolor em pañe el hum or, lo m ism o que no perm itiría que el hum or em pañase el dolor.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“Six bells and all’s well. Steady as she goes. Hit the deck. Drop your cocks and grab your socks.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“Sometimes a manipulator’s own ends are simply the actual disruption of the ward for the sake of disruption. There are such people in our society.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“Now they tell me a psychopath’s a guy fights too much and fucks too much, but they ain’t wholly right, do you think?”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“If they don't exist, how can a man see them?”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest