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" Anything that can be done chemically can be done by other means. "

William S. Burroughs

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" Scientology is a model control system, a state in fact with its own courts, police, rewards and penalties. "

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" Changes... can only be effected by alterations in the original. The only thing not prerecorded in a prerecorded universe are the prerecordings themselves. The copies can only repeat themselves word for word. A virus is a copy. You can pretty it up, cut it up, scramble it - it will reassemble in the same form. "

William S. Burroughs

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

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" Speaking for myself, art differs from writing in that I never know what I'm going to paint until I paint it, so it's almost like automatic writing. A writer, on the other hand, can't help but know what he's going to write, because the activity demands a degree of premeditation. "

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

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

William S. Burroughs

" Most serious writers refuse to make themselves available to the things that technology is doing. I've never been able to understand this sort of fear. "

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

" 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

" Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer. "

William S. Burroughs

" Which came first the intestine or the tapeworm? "

William S. Burroughs

" Thinking is not enough. There is no final enough of wisdom, experience - any... thing. "

William S. Burroughs

" My relationships with my cats has saved me from a deadly, pervasive ignorance. "

William S. Burroughs

" Your knowledge of what is going on can only be superficial and relative. "

William S. Burroughs

" If everyone is to be made responsible for everything they do, you must extend responsibility beyond the level of conscious intention. "

William S. Burroughs

" I started to write in about 1950; I was thirty-five at the time; there didn't seem to be any strong motivation. I simply was endeavoring to put down in a more or less straightforward journalistic style something about my experiences with addiction and addicts. "

William S. Burroughs

" No one owns life, but anyone who can pick up a frying pan owns death. "

William S. Burroughs

" An addict never stops growing. Stupider. "

William S. Burroughs

" You must learn to exist with no religion, no country, no allies. You must learn to live alone in silence. "

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

" 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

" Visual art and writing don't exist on an aesthetic hierarchy that positions one above the other, because each is capable of things the other can't do at all. Sometimes one picture is equal to 30 pages of discourse, just as there are things images are completely incapable of communicating. "

William S. Burroughs

" The world wasn't a more tolerant place when I was a young man. Rather, they simply sidestepped all the issues. "

William S. Burroughs

" Black magic operates most effectively in preconscious, marginal areas. Casual curses are the most effective. "

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

" 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

" Like all pure creatures, cats are practical. "

William S. Burroughs

" Some people like neat suburbs. I always am attracted to the rundown and the old and the offbeat. "

William S. Burroughs

" The only possible ethic is to do what one wants to do. "

William S. Burroughs