William S. Burroughs Quotes - Page 6

Quotes about:

• Knowing you might not make it... in that knowledge courage is born.

  William S. Burroughs

  Knowing, Might, Born

  William S Burroughs (2012). “The Western Lands”, p.17, Penguin UK

  13 Copy quote

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

  William S. Burroughs

  Shots, Ifs

  10 Copy quote

• The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set-up by the non-dreamers

  William S. Burroughs

  Dream, Spontaneous, Dangerous

  William S. Burroughs (2007). “Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader”, p.289, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  4 Copy quote

• Life is a vacation from two eternities.

  William S. Burroughs

  Vacation, Two, Life Is

  10 Copy quote

• 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

• There is only one thing a writer can write about: what is in front of his senses at the moment of writing... I am a recording instrument... I do not presume to impose "story" "plot" "continuity"... Insofar as I succeed in Direct recording of certain areas of psychic process I may have limited function... I am not an entertainer.

  William S. Burroughs

  Writing, Psychics, Plot

  William S. Burroughs (2007). “Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader”, p.169, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  20 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

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

  William S. Burroughs

  Asking Questions, Government, Law

  15 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

  4 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

• 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.

  8 Copy quote

• 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

• 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

  Love, Life, Money

  William S. Burroughs (1993). “The Adding Machine: Selected Essays”, p.87, Arcade Publishing

  29 Copy quote

• Virtue is simply happiness, and happiness is a by-product of function. You are happy when you are functioning.

  William S. Burroughs

  Happiness, Virtue, Function

  8 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

  5 Copy quote

• Never interfere in a girl and boy fight.

  William S. Burroughs

  Girl, Fighting, Boys

  12 Copy quote

• I had the feeling that some horrible image was just beyond the field of vision, moving, as I turned my head, so that I never quite saw it.

  William S. Burroughs

  Moving, Feelings, Vision

  William S. Burroughs (2007). “Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader”, p.54, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  16 Copy quote

• When people start talking about their bowel movements, they are inexorable as the processes of which they speak.

  William S. Burroughs

  Talking, People, Movement

  William S. Burroughs (2012). “Junky: The Definitive Text of "Junk"”, p.49, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  4 Copy quote

• And there are my cats, engaged in a ritual that goes back thousands of years, tranquilly licking themselves after the meal. Practical animals, they prefer to have others provide the food ... some of them do. There must have been a split between the cats who accepted domestication and those who did not.

  William S. Burroughs

  Cat, Animal, Years

  9 Copy quote

• Hustlers of the world, there is one mark you cannot beat: the mark inside.

  William S. Burroughs

  World, Beats, Mark

  William S. Burroughs (2007). “Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader”, p.153, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  10 Copy quote

• It's the little touches that make a future solid enough to destroy.

  William S. Burroughs

  Littles, Enough

  William S Burroughs (2012). “The Western Lands”, p.44, Penguin UK

  10 Copy quote

• Bizarre and engrossingly disturbing, Naked Lunch, finds truth in madness.

  William S. Burroughs

  Lunch, Naked, Madness

  5 Copy quote

• My relationship with cats has saved me from a deadly and pervasive ignorance.

  William S. Burroughs

  Ignorance, Cat, Saved

  "Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs".

  20 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

  4 Copy quote

• Quien sabe? Not me. The older I get the less I sabe, the less wisdom, maturity and caution I have.

  William S. Burroughs

  Maturity, Caution

  13 Copy quote

Page 6 of 16

First

← Prev

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin