"They have worries, they're counting the miles, they're thinking about where to sleep tonight, how much money for gas, the weather, how they'll get there--and all the time they'll get there anyway, you see. But they need to worry and betray time with urgencies [sic] false and otherwise, purely anxious and whiny, their souls really won't be at peace unless they can latch on to an established and proven worry and having once found it they assume facial expressions to fit and go with it, which is, you see, unhappiness, and all the times it all flies by them and they know it and that too worries them no end." -Jack Kerouac, "On the Road"
I like these three sentences because there are probably more like five or ten sentences there. This style of rambling in presentation of dialogue and narration sums up one reason I love Kerouac and one reason he drives me nuts. When Dean Moriarty speaks, it is often either utterly nonsensical, if not annoying, or quite eloquent and profound (perhaps both). I also like this passage because Dean is telling Sal about the false and fabricated problems that Americans cling to as a sort of odd comforter to get through modern society. Finally, I truly just enjoy the wording and the sound of it; I can picture a pair of "normals" who are trying not to look at the terror that is a sweating Dean Moriarty, mocking them
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