William S. Burroughs Quotes - Page 5

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• Ever see a hot shot hit, kid? I saw the Gimp catch one in Philly. We rigged his room with a one-way whorehouse mirror and charged a sawski to watch it. He never got the needle out of his arm. They don't if the shot is right. That's the way they find them, dropper full of clotted blood hanging out of a blue arm. The look in his eyes when it hit --- Kid, it was tasty.

  William S. Burroughs

  Kids, Eye, Mirrors

  William S. Burroughs (1984). “Naked lunch”, Grove Pr

  12 Copy quote

• Belief is a meaningless word. What does it mean? I believe something. Okay, now you have someone who is hearing voices and believes in these voices. It doesn't mean they have any necessary reality. Your whole concept of your "I" is an illusion. You have to give something called an "I" before you speak of what the "I" believes.

  William S. Burroughs

  Believe, Mean, Reality

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• If all pleasure is relief from tension, junk affords relief from the whole life process, in disconnecting the hypothalamus, which is the center of psychic energy and libido.

  William S. Burroughs

  Psychics, Energy, Junk

  William S. Burroughs (1984). “Naked lunch”, Grove Pr

  54 Copy quote

• Death needs time for what it kills to grow in.

  William S. Burroughs

  Needs, Grows, Time Of Need

  William S. Burroughs (1979). “Ah Pook is here, and other texts”, Calder Publications Limited

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• The hallucinogens produce visionary states, sort of, but morphine and its derivatives decrease awareness of inner processes, thoughts and feelings. They are pain killers; pure and simple. They are absolutely contraindicated for creative work, and I include in the lot alcohol, morphine, barbiturates, tranquilizers the whole spectrum of sedative drugs.

  William S. Burroughs

  Pain, Simple, Creative

  William S. Burroughs (2001). “Burroughs Live: The Collected Interviews of William S. Burroughs, 1960-1997”, Semiotext

  56 Copy quote

• Life is a vacation from two eternities.

  William S. Burroughs

  Vacation, Two, Life Is

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• Society is cancerous and bureaucracy is its cancer.

  William S. Burroughs

  Cancer, Bureaucracy

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  9 Copy quote

• Artists to my mind are the real architects of change.

  William S. Burroughs

  Real, Artist, Mind

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  25 Copy quote

• The purpose of technology is not to confuse the brain but to serve the body.

  William S. Burroughs

  Technology, Brain, Purpose

  6 Copy quote

• The nonconformist here may be "beat down" by life but still has a beauty in his or her longing for freedom and for an awakening of the mind.

  William S. Burroughs

  Mind, May, Awakening

  13 Copy quote

• A functioning police state needs no police.

  William S. Burroughs

  Government, Police, Atheism

  William S. Burroughs (1984). “Naked lunch”, Grove Pr

  8 Copy quote

• Is Control controlled by its need to control? Answer: yes.

  William S. Burroughs

  Needs, Answers, Moderation

  William S. Burroughs (1979). “Ah Pook is here, and other texts”, Calder Publications Limited

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• Intelligence and war are games, perhaps the only meaningful games left. If any player becomes too proficient, the game is threatened with termination.

  William S. Burroughs

  Meaningful, War, Player

  William S. Burroughs (1993). “The Adding Machine: Selected Essays”, p.124, Arcade Publishing

  8 Copy quote

• If I knew how much you loved me, I would’ve shot you sooner.

  William S. Burroughs

  Shots, Ifs

  9 Copy quote

• The more absolute the need, the more predictable the behavior becomes until it is mathematically certain.

  William S. Burroughs

  Needs, Behavior, Certain

  Source: www.stopsmilingonline.com

  5 Copy quote

• Once the law starts asking questions, there's no stopping them.

  William S. Burroughs

  Asking Questions, Government, Law

  15 Copy quote

• I project myself out through the glasses and across the street, a ghost in the morning sunlight, torn with disembodied lust.

  William S. Burroughs

  Morning, Glasses, Lust

  William S. Burroughs (1984). “Naked lunch”, Grove Pr

  13 Copy quote

• If you consider any set of data without a preconceived viewpoint, then a viewpoint will emerge from the data.

  William S. Burroughs

  Data, Viewpoints, Ifs

  7 Copy quote

• The way to kill a man or a nation is to cut off his dreams, the way the whites are taking care of the Indians: killing their dreams, their magic, their familiar spirits.

  William S. Burroughs

  Dream, Cutting, Men

  William S. Burroughs (2013). “The Place of Dead Roads: A Novel”, p.42, Holt Paperbacks

  12 Copy quote

• Most people don't see what's going on around them. That's my principal message to writers: 'For God's sake, keep your eyes open. Notice what's going on around you.'

  William S. Burroughs

  Eye, People, Sake

  William S. Burroughs (2001). “Burroughs Live: The Collected Interviews of William S. Burroughs, 1960-1997”, Semiotext

  6 Copy quote

• Never interfere in a girl and boy fight.

  William S. Burroughs

  Girl, Fighting, Boys

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• Writing prejudicial, off-putting reviews is a precise exercise in applied black magic. The reviewer can draw free-floating disagreeable associations to a book by implying that the book is completely unimportant without saying exactly why, and carefully avoiding any clear images that could capture the reader's full attention.

  William S. Burroughs

  Book, Writing, Exercise

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

  27 Copy quote

• We must find out what words are and how they function. They become images when written down, but images of words repeated in the mind and not of the image of the thing itself.

  William S. Burroughs

  Mind, Function, Written

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• As a young child I wanted to be a writer because writers were rich and famous. They lounged around Singapore and Rangoon smoking opium in a yellow pongee silk suit. They sniffed cocaine in Mayfair and they penetrated forbidden swamps with a faithful native boy and lived in the native quarter of Tangier smoking hashish and languidly caressing a pet gazelle.

  William S. Burroughs

  Children, Boys, Yellow

  William S. Burroughs (2007). “Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader”, p.16, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  56 Copy quote

• Modern man has lost the option of silence.

  William S. Burroughs

  Men, Silence, Modern

  William S. Burroughs (2007). “Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader”, p.208, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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