The line derives from Ray Manzarek, the Doors’ keyboardist, quoted in Newsweek on 6 November 1967 explaining the band’s name: ‘There are things you know about, and things you don’t, the known and the unknown, and in between are the doors—that’s us.’ Quote Investigator, which verified that citation on microfilm, has found the polished version in no text by Huxley or Blake, and concludes the quotation should be attributed to Manzarek.
“There Are Things Known, and Things Unknown, and In Between Are the Doors” Not Aldous Huxley. Ray Manzarek of the Doors, quoted in Newsweek, 6 November 1967: "There are things you know about, and things you don’t, the known and the unknown, and in between are the doors–that’s us."
⚠ The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Aldous Huxley. Use the credit shown above instead.
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In context
Evoking the world of Ray Manzarek — American keyboardist, co-founder of the Doors. Theme: "There Are Things Known, and Things Unknown, and In Between Are the Doors". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Minimalist
Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "There Are Things Known, and Things Unknown, and In Between Are the Doors". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Provenance
The source
Work
Newsweek, ‘Music: This Way to the Egress’
Published
6 November 1967, page 101, column 2
Speaker
Ray Manzarek, then 25, co-founder and keyboardist of the Doors
Verified
On microfilm, per Quote Investigator
“There are things you know about,” says 25-year-old Manzarek, whose specialty is playing the organ with one hand and the bass piano with the other, “and things you don’t, the known and the unknown, and in between are the doors–that’s us.”
Ray Manzarek, Newsweek, 6 November 1967
The familiar version is this sentence streamlined: the conversational ‘things you know about’ tightened to ‘things known’, and the closing ‘that’s us’ — the part that makes it an explanation of a band name rather than a piece of mysticism — dropped entirely. Losing that clause is what let the line pass as Blake or Huxley.
Quote Investigator’s earliest citation is Newsweek, 6 November 1967, page 101 — located via a 2007 Louisiana State University master’s thesis and then verified on microfilm the 1967 citation ↗.
QI states plainly that it has not located the quotation in the texts of Blake or Huxley. Huxley’s The Doors of Perception (1954) does discuss doors, but the sentence under investigation is not in it what QI checked ↗.
What Blake actually wrote, in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, is ‘If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite’ — the line that gave Huxley his 1954 title, and the band its name at one remove the Blake text ↗.
A 1978 rock encyclopedia claimed the saying appeared on the flyleaf of Huxley’s book and was Blake’s; QI has been unable to find it on any edition’s flyleaf, and found no evidence Blake made the remark. A 1990 advertisement for the film The Doors printed it over Jim Morrison’s name, which is how most people meet it the 1978 and 1990 citations ↗.
In copyright. The sentence survives because a Newsweek reporter wrote it down in 1967 — long after the 1930 cut-off for the United States public domain — so both the article and Manzarek’s quoted words are protected. Quote it briefly with attribution rather than reproducing the passage. Blake’s ‘doors of perception’ sentence, by contrast, is genuinely public domain; it is simply a different sentence. This is not legal advice.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
Four names for one sentence
The line has been credited to a poet, an essayist and a rock singer — none of whom said it. It belongs to the fourth man, who was explaining a band name to a magazine.
✕
Aldous HuxleyNot in his texts refuted
Quote Investigator has not located the quotation in Huxley’s writing. The Doors of Perception (1954) discusses doors — crediting the phrase ‘Doors in the Wall’ to H. G. Wells — but does not contain this sentence what QI searched ↗.
✕
William BlakeNo evidence he made the remark refuted
A 1978 rock encyclopedia asserted the words were Blake’s and appeared on the flyleaf of Huxley’s book. QI could not find them on any flyleaf, and found no evidence for the Blake ascription the 1978 claim ↗.
✕
Jim MorrisonThe credit on the 1990 film advertisement unsupported
An advertisement for the 1990 film The Doors printed the polished line over Morrison’s name, and quotation sites followed. QI allows he may have said something similar at some other time, but the documented source is Manzarek the 1990 advertisement ↗.
~
Ray ManzarekThe documented speaker genuine
Quoted in Newsweek on 6 November 1967, page 101, verified on microfilm. QI concludes the quotation should be attributed to him QI’s conclusion ↗.
✓A streamlined version of what Ray Manzarek told Newsweek on 6 November 1967 — not Huxley, not Blake, and not documented from Morrison the evidence ↗.
Context
Why it sounds like Blake
The name of the band really does come from Blake, by way of Huxley: Blake wrote that if the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear as it is, infinite, and Huxley borrowed the phrase for his 1954 title. So a sentence explaining that name arrives pre-loaded with two literary ancestors.
Strip off the closing ‘that’s us’ and there is nothing left to mark it as 1967 shop talk. What remains is an aphorism about the known and the unknown — and an aphorism with no visible owner drifts upward, toward the most famous name in reach.
The known and the unknown, and in between are the doors–that’s us.
Read the full story
The chain of custody here is unusually legible. A 2007 master’s thesis at Louisiana State University pointed to the Newsweek profile; Quote Investigator followed the footnote and read the article on microfilm. That is the whole provenance — one magazine paragraph from November 1967.
Everything after it is compression. By 1978 a rock encyclopedia was calling the words Blake’s; by 1990 a film advertisement was calling them Morrison’s; by 2010 quotation sites were serving them with Morrison’s dates attached. At no point did anyone add evidence — each step only removed a qualifier.
Explore
Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
1939–2013 · American keyboardist, co-founder of the Doors
Ray Manzarek co-founded the Doors with Jim Morrison in 1965 after the two met at UCLA film school, and his organ playing is a large part of what the band sounds like. He was also, by a distance, its most articulate explainer — which is why a reporter asking where the name came from got a fully-formed sentence back, and why that sentence outlived the interview and went looking for a poet to belong to.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
The primary source (Chicago)
“Music: This Way to the Egress.” Newsweek, 6 November 1967, p. 101, col. 2, quoting Ray Manzarek. Citation located and verified on microfilm per Quote Investigator.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘There Are Things Known, and Things Unknown, and In Between Are the Doors’?” Last verified 2 Sep 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/there-are-things-known-and-things-unknown-and-in-between/