photo by Florentino Fuentes. New York Public Library 2008

“And I was back on Times Square; and right in the middle of a rush hour, too, seeing with my innocent road-eyes the absolute madness and fantastic hoorair of New York with its millions and millions hustling forever for a buck among themselves, the mad dream-grabbing, taking, giving, sighing, dying just so they could be buried in those awful cemetery cities beyond Long Island City. The high towers of the land- the other end of the land, the place where Paper America is born. I stood in a subway doorway, trying to get enough nerve to pick up a beautiful butt, and everytime I stooped great crowds rushed by obliterated it from my sight, and finally it was crushed.”

ON THE ROAD

JACK KEROUAC