Man must get away from verbal forms to attain the consciousness, that which is there to be perceived at hand.

Knowing you might not make it... in that knowledge courage is born.

In my writing I am acting as a map maker, an explorer of psychic areas, a cosmonaut of inner space, and I see no point in exploring areas that have already been thoroughly surveyed.

I feel that the change, the mutation in consciousness, will occur spontaneously once certain pressures now in operation are removed. I feel that the principal instrument of monopoly and control that prevents expansion of consciousness is the word lines controlling thought, feeling and apparent sensory impressions of the human host.

I don't care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do. The important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it.

I knew [Timothy] Leary, but barely knew, didn't really know Jan [Kerouac].

[Political movements] both favor alcohol and are against pot.