In deep sadness there is no place for sentimentality.
William S. Burroughs
In my writing I am acting as a map maker, an explorer of psychic areas, a cosmonaut of inner space, and I see no point in exploring areas that have already been thoroughly surveyed.
William S. Burroughs
Junk is the ideal product… the ultimate merchandise. No sales talk necessary. The client will crawl through a sewer and beg to buy.
William S. Burroughs
Language is a virus from outer space.
William S. Burroughs
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
Perhaps all pleasure is only relief.
William S. Burroughs
I am getting so far out one day I won’t come back at all.
William S. Burroughs
Man is an artifact designed for space travel. He is not designed to remain in his present biologic state any more than a tadpole is designed to remain a tadpole.
William S. Burroughs
Hustlers of the world, there is one mark you cannot beat: the mark inside.
William S. Burroughs
Most of the trouble in this world has been caused by folks who can’t mind their own business, because they have no business of their own to mind, any more than a smallpox virus has.
William S. Burroughs
Nothing is true, everything is permitted.
William S. Burroughs
Our national drug is alcohol. We tend to regard the use any other drug with special horror.
William S. Burroughs
Like all pure creatures, cats are practical.
William S. Burroughs
Silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing.
William S. Burroughs
Smash the control images. Smash the control machine.
William S. Burroughs
Sometimes paranoia’s just having all the facts.
William S. Burroughs
The aim of education is the knowledge, not of facts, but of values.
William S. Burroughs
The cat does not offer services. The cat offers itself. Of course he wants care and shelter. You don’t buy love for nothing.
William S. Burroughs
The only possible ethic is to do what one wants to do.
William S. Burroughs
There couldn’t be a society of people who didn’t dream. They’d be dead in two weeks.
William S. Burroughs
Which came first the intestine or the tapeworm?
William S. Burroughs
You can’t fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal.
William S. Burroughs
Your knowledge of what is going on can only be superficial and relative.
William S. Burroughs
Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.
William S. Burroughs
The face of evil is always the face of total need.
William S. Burroughs
Anything that can be done chemically can be done by other means.
William S. Burroughs
A cat’s rage is beautiful, burning with pure cat flame, all its hair standing up and crackling blue sparks, eyes blazing and sputtering.
William S. Burroughs
A functioning police state needs no police.
William S. Burroughs
A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what’s going on.
William S. Burroughs
Admittedly, a homosexual can be conditioned to react sexually to a woman, or to an old boot for that matter. In fact, both homo – and heterosexual experimental subjects have been conditioned to react sexually to an old boot, and you can save a lot of money that way.
William S. Burroughs
After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say ‘I want to see the manager.’
William S. Burroughs
Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact.
William S. Burroughs
Be just and if you can’t be just, be arbitrary.
William S. Burroughs
Black magic operates most effectively in preconscious, marginal areas. Casual curses are the most effective.
William S. Burroughs
Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape.
William S. Burroughs
Every man has inside himself a parasitic being who is acting not at all to his advantage.
William S. Burroughs
Happiness is a byproduct of function, purpose, and conflict; those who seek happiness for itself seek victory without war.
William S. Burroughs
How I hate those who are dedicated to producing conformity.
William S. Burroughs
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn’t do it. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military.
William S. Burroughs
