"We were suddenly driving along the blue waters of the Gulf, and at the same time a momentous mad thing began on the radio; it was the Chicken Jazz n' Gumbo disk-jockey show from New Orleans, all mad jazz records, colored records, with the disk jockey saying, `Don't worry 'bout nothing!' We saw New Orleans in the night ahead of us with joy. Dean rubbed his hands over the wheel. `Now we're going to get our kicks!' At dusk, we were coming into the humming streets of New Orleans. `Oh, smell the people!' yelled Dean with his face out the window sniffing. `Ah! Dog! Life!' He swung around a trolley. `Yes!' --- Jack Kerouac, "On the Road."

"What I love about New Orleans is that it tolerates every kind of eccentricity. Tennessee Williams didn't end up there by accident." --James Lee Burke