Bop began with Jazz but one afternoon somewhere on a sidewalk maybe 1939, 1940, Dizzy Gillespie or Charlie Parker or Thelonious Monk was walking past a men's clothing store on 42nd Street or South Main in L.A. and from a loudspeaker they suddenly heard a wild impossible mistake in jazz that could only have been heard inside their own imaginary head, and that is a new art. Bop.
Jack KerouacIt's okay, girl, we'll make it till the sun goes down forever. And until then what you got to lose but the losing? We're fallen angels who didn't believe that nothing means nothing.
Jack KerouacItโs a sort of furtiveness โฆ Like we were a generation of furtive. You know, with an inner knowledge thereโs no use flaunting on that level, the level of the โpublicโ, a kind of beatness โ I mean, being right down to it, to ourselves, because we all really know where we are โ and a weariness with all the forms, all the conventions of the world โฆ Itโs something like that. So I guess you might say weโre a beat generation.
Jack Kerouac