“I am an appearanceThe world is an appearanceThe bread I eat is an appearanceAll wish't forth from Mind EssenceDue to Ignorance--I don't have to existI don't exist, I do exist--Who cares?For the purposes of this worldDo nothingOr do everything anyhow.”

“Dean: God exists without qualms. As we roll along this way, I am positive beyond doubt that everything will be taken care of for us - that even you, as you drive, fearful of the wheel - the thing will go along of itself and you won't go off the road and I can sleep.”

“I don't know, I don't care, and it doesn't make any difference.”

“I have all the time in the world from life to life to do what is to do, to do what is done, to do the timeless doing.”

“I wanta go to Tangiers, I want girls, Iwanta write the biggest book in the world,I want spring to come, I want, I want--Wanting, I get; getting, I lose; losing, Isuffer; suffering, I die--NOT WANTING, I DON'T GETNOT GETTING, I DON'T LOSENOT LOSING, I DON'T SUFFERNOT SUFFERING, I DON'T DIE SUFFERING.”

“I wanted to get me a full pack complete with everything necessary to sleep, shelter, eat, cook, in fact a regular kitchen and bedroom right on my back, and go off somewhere and find perfect solitude and look into the perfect emptiness of my mind and be completely neutral from any and all ideas. I intended to pray, too, as my only activity, pray for all living creatures; I saw it was the only decent activity left in the world. To be in some riverbottom somewhere, or in a desert, or in mountains, or in some hut in Mexico, or shack in Adirondack, and rest and be kind, and do nothing else, practice what the Chinese call "do-nothing".”

“Yeah," I said, "but you're an artist. You don't believe in decency and honesty and gratitude. Where shall we eat?”