One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Quotes:

But he won’t let the pain blot out the humor no more’n he’ll let the humor blot out the pain.

- Ken Kesey

source: Ken Kesey (2012). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition”, p.224, Penguin

topic: Pain, Mcmurphy, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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

- Ken Kesey

source: Ken Kesey (2016). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”, p.123, Hamilton Books

topic: Being Strong, Funny Things, Training, Strong Passion, Strong Will

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

- Ken Kesey

source: Ken Kesey (2012). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition”, p.187, Penguin

topic: Memorable, People, Dumb, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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

- Ken Kesey

source: Ken Kesey (2016). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”, p.36, Hamilton Books

topic: Relationship, Happiness, Smile, Humor And Laughter, Humor Laughter

This world… belongs to the strong, my friend! The ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the weak.

- Ken Kesey

source: Ken Kesey (2016). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”, p.33, Hamilton Books

topic: Strong, Cuckoos, World, Devouring, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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

- Ken Kesey

source: Ken Kesey (2016). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”, p.3, Hamilton Books

topic: Truth, Mcmurphy, History, Clear Minds, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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.

- Ken Kesey

topic: Life, Running, Hurt, Mcmurphy, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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.

- Ken Kesey

source: Ken Kesey (2012). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition”, p.166, Penguin

topic: Psychology, Looks, Firsts, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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

source: "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". Book by Ken Kesey, 1962.

topic: Jesus, Mean, Kids, Beavers, Mcmurphy

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

source: Ken Kesey (2012). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition”, p.148, Penguin

topic: People, Trying, Cuckoos, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

What the Chronics are - or most of us - are machines with flaws inside that can't be repaired, flaws born in, or flaws beat in over so many years of the guy running head-on into solid things that by the time the hospital found him he was bleeding rust in some vacant lot.

- Ken Kesey

topic: Running, Years, Guy, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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

source: Ken Kesey (2016). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”, p.36, Hamilton Books

topic: Real, Men, Doors, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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

topic: Crazy, Thinking, Average, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

I been silent so long now it’s gonna roar out of me like floodwaters and you think the guy telling this is ranting and raving my God; you think this is too horrible to have really happened, this is too awful to be the truth! But, please. It’s still hard for me to have a clear mind thinking on it. But it’s the truth even if it didn’t happen.

- Ken Kesey

source: Ken Kesey (2012). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition”, p.15, Penguin

topic: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

The flock gets sight of a spot of blood on some chicken and they all go to peckin' at it, see, till they rip the chicken to shreds, blood and bones and feathers. But usually a couple of the flock gets spotted in the fracas, then it's their turn. And a few more gets spots and gets pecked to death, and more and more. Oh, a peckin' party can wipe out the whole flock in a matter of a few hours, buddy, I seen it. A mighty awesome sight. The only way to prevent it—with chickens—is to clip blinders on them. So's they can't see.

- Ken Kesey

source: Ken Kesey (2002). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (SparkNotes Literature Guide)”, SparkNotes

topic: Couple, Rip, Party, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Blinders

They can't tell so much about you if you got your eyes closed.

- Ken Kesey

source: Ken Kesey (2016). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”, p.1, Hamilton Books

topic: Life, Eye, Cuckoos, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

What makes people so impatient is what I can't figure; all the guy had to do was wait.

- Ken Kesey

source: Ken Kesey (2016). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”, p.67, Hamilton Books

topic: People, Guy, Waiting, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

High high in the hills , high in a pine tree bed. She's tracing the wind with that old hand, counting the clouds with that old chant, Three geese in a flock one flew east one flew west one flew over the cuckoo's nest

- Ken Kesey

source: Ken Kesey (2002). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”, p.253, Penguin

topic: Clouds, Hands, Wind, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Geese

He knows that there's no better way in the world to aggravate somebody who's trying to make it hard for you than by acting like you're not bothered.

- Ken Kesey

source: Ken Kesey (2016). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”, p.61, Hamilton Books

topic: Trying, Acting, World, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Not Bothered

I aspire to be Jack Nicholson. I love his every single mannerism. I used to try and be him in virtually everything I did, I don't know why. I watched One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest when I was about 13, and I dressed like him. I tried to do his accent. I did everything like him. I think it kind of stuck with me.

- Robert Pattinson

topic: Thinking, Careers, Trying, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Nicholson

When I was seven, I watched One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with my mom. When Jack Nicholson was strapped to the table getting electroshock treatment, my mom burst into tears. She said it reminded her of her life, and I was stunned, because I didn't know my mom had been nominated for an Oscar.

- Christopher Titus

source: "Titus / Locking Up Mom". www.imdb.com. 2000.

topic: Mom, Tears, Cuckoos, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Nicholson

I never really set out to research any of these stories. I try to lead an interesting life though. I guess the closest I came to research was when I applied to work at the state mental institution in Austin, TX. I wanted to work the night shift like Ken Kesey did when he wrote One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I thought that might inspire me to write a book that great.

- Arthur Bradford

source: Source: www.bookbrowse.com

topic: Book, Writing, Night, Interesting Life, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

I bought the book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I paid to have it made into a play and I played in it for six months. I came back and I tried to make it into a movie, without success.

- Kirk Douglas

source: "EXCLUSIVE: Kirk Douglas Reflects on an Amazing Career". Interview with Brian Gallagher, movieweb.com. December 8, 2008.

topic: Book, Play, Six Months, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

If you say you've had a nervous breakdown or things aren't right mentally, people run away from you. They think you're from 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest,' you know.

- Frank Bruno

topic: Running, Thinking, People, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Nervous Breakdown

When I was thirteen, I had a nervous breakdown, and I was put into this grown-up mental hospital with all these 50-, 60-year-old men and women. This big, Victorian mental house. There were like five boys in there, all my age, looked after by this woman who was 22 or 23. And it was like "Empire of the Sun" meets "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"-type of arrangement where you've got this young boy overcoming and becoming heroic in the face of this awful place.

- Duncan Roy

source: Source: www.indiewire.com

topic: Boys, Men, Years, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Empire Of The Sun

What's the first image that comes to mind when you think of a mental hospital? Jack Nicholson in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,' right? We need to change that perception, and places like this one are doing that.

- Deborah Norville

topic: Thinking, Perception, Mind, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Need A Change

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' is a movie that I just find flawless. Jack Nicholson... I just saw 'The Shining' again the other day; he's so brilliant. He's such a brilliant actor, just unbelievable.

- Michael Biehn

topic: Shining, Cuckoos, Actors, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

In terms of popular cinema, 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' is as near perfection as I can think of.

- Peter Mullan

topic: Thinking, Perfection, Cinema, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

You're making sense, old man, a sense of your own. You're not crazy the way they think. Yes...I see.

- Ken Kesey

source: Ken Kesey (2016). “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”, p.70, Hamilton Books

topic: Crazy, Men, Thinking, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

I had those kind of parents where I watched all of these very sophisticated movies: 'Five Easy Pieces', 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.'

- Sam Rockwell

topic: Parent, Cuckoos, Pieces, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

I loved the movie theater so I always saw a lot of movies. And then there was a play, I saw in the local paper, they were having auditions for a play of a book I had read. Which was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. So I said, "oh, I've read this, so I'm perfect for the part of the lead." His name is escaping me.

- Ed O'Neill

source: Source: collider.com

topic: Book, Escaping, Play, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Locals