I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismograph.

I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismograph.

People think love is an emotion. Love is good sense.

When Shakespeare was writing, he wasn't writing for stuff to lie on the page; it was supposed to get up and move around.

It's time to move on to the next step in the psychedelic revolution. We've reached a certain point, but we're not moving any more.

Fascism wants Baptism coast to coast.

Allen Ginsberg is a tremendous warrior as time goes by. He's a warrior first and a poet second.

Me and Norman Mailer have talked about how hard it is in America to get better. Especially at writing.

You don't lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case.

The truth doesn't have to do with cruelty, the truth has to do with mercy.

If grass were legalized, it would help our drug problem enormously.

I've been to too many Dead concerts. There've been smokin' holes where my memory used to be.

To hell with facts! We need stories!

Listen, wait, and be patient. Every shaman knows you have to deal with the fire that's in your audience's eye.

The trouble with super heroes is what to do between phone booths.

When we first broke into that forbidden box in the other dimension, we knew we had discovered something as surprising and powerful as the New World when Columbus came stumbling onto it.

You've got to get out and pray to the sky to appreciate the sunshine; otherwise you're just a lizard standing there with the sun shining on you.

Tricker the Squirrel is the best piece I ever wrote. It's intricate.

The Grateful Dead are our religion. This is a religion that doesn't pay homage to the God that all the other religions pay homage to.

There's a lot of people who don't understand the circle crops in England. Pure enigma.

Nowhere else in history has there ever been a flag that stands for the right to burn itself. This is the fractal of our flag. It stands for the right to destroy itself.

The Republican consciousness has no integrity and it falls apart once you check it out. If you're a Christian, why would you want to fry this dude?

I used to think we were going to win in the '60s. Nixon went out and I thought we won.

The Haight is just a place; the '60s was a spirit.

The '60s aren't over; they won't be over until the Fat Lady gets high.

If you're a Conservative, why aren't you behind conserving the land?

Take what you can use and let the rest go by.

There's something about taking a plow and breaking new ground. It gives you energy.

Ritual is necessary for us to know anything.

Leary can get a part of my mind that's kind of rusted shut grinding again, just by being around him and talking.

Loved. You can't use it in the past tense. Death does not stop that love at all.

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

When you're around the whole Dead scene, they're there as a tribal thing; they're there as part of a rendezvous and a pow-wow.

I was raised a Christian and was a stone-faced acid head.

People don't want other people to get high, because if you get high, you might see the falsity of the fabric of the society we live in.

The fundamentalists have taken the fun out of the mental.

The frontiers we broke into in the '60s are still largely unexplored.

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

You cant really be strong until you see a funny side to things.

He who marches out of line hears another drum.

People dont want other people to get high because if you get high you might see the falsity of the fabric of the society we live in.

Plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom.

The raw materials of reality without the glue of time are materials adrift and reality is as meaningless as the balsa parts of a model airplane scattered to the wind.

I grew up in Illinois.

Coaches are an integral part of any manager's team, especially if they are good pinochle players.

I would like to write a book that wasn't so violent and weird, but I just don't think I can do that with my talent. I don't think it would come off.

There is a lust in man no charm can tame: Of loudly publishing his neighbor's shame: On eagles wings immortal scandals fly, while virtuous actions are born and die.

I have been inundated with offers to move into a career in television or film, and these, too, are tempting.

I don't want to do architecture that's dry and dull.