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.

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.

What a cheery atmosphere, don't you agree?

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.

Man is certain of nothing but his ability to fail

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

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

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.

Good writing ain't necessarily good reading.

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

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

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

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

The stars up close to the moon were pale; they got brighter and braver the farther they got out of the circle of light ruled by the giant moon

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.

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.

To hell with facts! We need stories!

If you don't watch it people will force you one way or the other, into doing what they think you should do, or into just being mule-stubborn and doing the opposite out of spite.

He knows that 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.

You can't really be strong until you can see a funny side to things.

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

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.

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

HOW DO YOU FIND THE RIGHT POSITION TO LIE DOWN WITH PEOPLE OR EVEN ANIMALS? OFTEN ONE OF THE PARTNERS IS SMOTHERED OR CONTORTED. WHEN DONE PROPERLY, THOUGH, EVERYONE IS HAPPY.