"We blew it"
The quote I want to use actually comes from not the reading in full but the very first page of the book. Patti Smith's quote which states "Outside society, that's where I want to be." I use this quote not because I'm lazy and and didn't do the reading but because this quote, especially from the lips of Patti Smith, encompasses more of the theme of the movie, and especially the line "We blew it," then anything Laderman said. Patti Smith, much like the boys of Easy Rider, was on a quest for freedom. She, though, unlike Wyatt and Billy, found it and lived the free life more then 99.9% (and this number is being extremely gracious to the rest of the world) of the people who have ever graced this planet through her punk rock musical ability.
This movie is about 2 men, Wyatt and Billy, on a quest to find the free America. This theme is brought up in the Diner when George discusses that people are afraid of true freedom and what that represents. Wyatt had found that freedom once. He found it from the commune, where he was truly happy. Billy didn't like it but Wyatt knew. Even from the time they picked up the hitchhiker, his name escapes me at the moment, freedom was abundant. "Soon," he said. Billy responded, "That's what you said this morning." The hitchhiker responded, "Sometimes I say it all day." True freedom, living off the land. This is something Wyatt obviously respects with his previous conversation with the farmer. After the commune, they found nothing but hardship. They were arrested the first place they went for illegal parading, George was killed the following place, and even in New Orleans there was at least a confinement to the church during the LSD trip where sorrow and desperate cries for escape were the most real thing any of the four could grasp on to. Even after the quote, "We blew it," was said they were killed on their motorcycles for representing freedom. "We blew it," Wyatt said after their trip into New Orleans. He said this because he knew freedom was found on the commune and they walked out on it, so consumed with trying to find the mythical idea of freedom that he couldn't se it when it was there.