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 KerouacWe lay on our backs looking at the ceiling and wondering what God had wrought when he made life so sad and disinclined.
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 KerouacI felt the sensation of each of the directions I mentally and emotionally turned into amazed at all the possible directions you can take with different motives that come in like it can make you a different person โ Iโve often thought of this since childhood of suppose instead of going up Columbus as I usually did Iโd turn into Filbert would something happen that at the time is insignificant enough but would be like enough to influence my whole life in the end? โ Whatโs in store for me in the direction I donโt take?
Jack Kerouac