Chief Bromden Quotes

“But it’s the truth even if it didn’t happen.”

“His whole body shakes with the strain as he tries to lift something he knows he can’t lift, something everybody knows he can’t lift. But, for just a second, when we hear the cement grind at our feet, we think, by golly, he might do it”

“Nobody complains about all the fog. I know why, now: as bad as it is, you can slip back in it and feel safe. That’s what McMurphy can’t understand, us wanting to be safe. He keeps trying to drag us out of the fog, out in the open where we’d be easy to get at”

“No wife wanting new linoleum. No relatives pulling at him with watery old eyes. No one to care about, which is what makes him free enough to be a good con man.”

“I let the mop push me back to the wall and smile and try to foul her equipment up as much as possible by not letting her see my eyes --they can’t tell so much about you if you got your eyes closed.”

“Why, you sure did give a jump when I told you that coon was coming, Chief. I thought somebody told me you was deef.”