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About this quote

What does it mean?
A personal testimony about a book changing life, suggesting its widespread cultural impact.
In plain terms
Reading On the Road in 1959 changed my life like it changed many others.
What can you take from it?
Powerful books can profoundly change lives.

Where it applies

  • book recommendation
  • memoir
  • literary discussion

Putting it to work

  • read impactful books
  • share transformative stories
  • support writers

Questions to consider

  • What book changed your life?
  • How do you measure a book's impact?

Another view

Impact varies by reader; not everyone will have the same experience.

More from Jack Kerouac

  1. Caringosity killed the Kerouac cat.

    Permalink to quote #58
  2. Someone handed me Mexico City Blues in St. Paul [Minnesota] in 1959 and it blew my mind. It was the first poetry that spoke my own language.

    Permalink to quote #60
  3. I consider On The Road sort of holy because it helped change my life as it did to so many others and as it continues to do so. Jack wanted his papers enshrined…

    Permalink to quote #57

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