There’s no doubt in my mind that McMurphy’s won, but I’m not sure what.

I'd think, maybe he truly is something extraordinary. He's what he is, that's it. Maybe that makes him strong enough, being what he is.

You're either on the bus or off the bus.

What a Life: Give some of us pills to stop a fit, give the rest shock to start one.

You get your visions through whatever gate you're granted.

You seem to forget, Miss Flinn, that this is an institution for the insane.

...you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy

...you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy

Billy here has been talkin' about slicin' his wrists again, so is there seven of you guys who'd like to join him and make it therapeutic?

He hadn't let what he looked like run his life one way or the other, any more than he'd let the Combine mill him into fitting where they wanted him to fit.

Because sometimes the only way to keep from losing everything is to give everything up. Because sometimes strength must for the sake of winning give in to--

Man is certain of nothing but his ability to fail. It is the deepest faith we have, and the unbeliever- the blasphemer, the dissenter- will stimulate in us the most righteous of furies.

It's the truth, even if it didn't happen.

He couldn't seem to get his teeth into anything. Except books. The things in books was darn near more real to him than the things breathing and eating.

The best of all possible cages.' Ben stepped back to regard the job with a sad smile. 'What more can one ask?

I don't seem able to get it straight in my mind....

They're out there...One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

In any given situation there will always be more dumb people than smart people. We ain't many!

When I die pin me up against the sky.

Always stay in your own movie.

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

Society is what decides who's sane and who isn't, so you got to measure up.

Does the Spearmint lose its flavor on the bedpost over night?

They are in contact on a high-voltage wavelength of hate...

The trouble with superheroes is what to do between phone booths.

The game goes round and round, to the rattle of dice and the shuffle of play money.

I was actually going out of the hospital with two whores on a fishing boat; I had to keep saying it over and over to myself to believe it.

But it’s the truth even if it didn’t happen.

. . .sometimes reading the same page over and over, until one sleepy afternoon something clicked, like a lock unlocking, and she saw those printed doors swing open on a vast house of words.

But I remember one thing: it wasn't me that started acting deaf, it was people that first started acting like I was too dumb to hear or see or say anything at all.

They're out there. First line of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

He’s got hands so long and white and dainty I think they carved each other out of soap.

I want to touch him because I'm one of these queers!

...you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep in balance." [Chief Bromden]

Good writing ain't necessarily good reading.

You can make a mark across the night with the tip of an embered stick, and you can actually see it fixed in its finity. You can be absolutely sure of its treacherous impermanence. And that is all.

He's what he is, that's it. Maybe that makes him strong enough, being what he is.

We are the culture. All those people that are doing those dumb TV things and promoting hate…that’s the ‘counter’culture.

Man is certain of nothing but his ability to fail

McMurphy tied a chunk of meat to each end of a four-foot string, tossed it into the air, and sent two squawking birds wheeling off, "Till death do them part.

What a cheery atmosphere, don't you agree?

I'd give something to see that. Mostly, I'd just 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.

I will be a sonofabitch if he ain't in here at eleven-thirty at night, fartin' around in the dark with a pair of scissors and a paper sack.

Ah, ah, ahhh ... first one gets mad, then one goes mad

I forget sometimes what laughter can do.

He's safe as long as he can laugh, he thinks, and it works pretty fair.

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.