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" Every man has inside himself a parasitic being who is acting not at all to his advantage. "

William S. Burroughs

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" Be just and if you can't be just, be arbitrary. "

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" 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. "

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" Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape. "

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

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

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" Like all pure creatures, cats are practical. "

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" A cat's rage is beautiful, burning with pure cat flame, all its hair standing up and crackling blue sparks, eyes blazing and sputtering. "

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" Which came first the intestine or the tapeworm? "

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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

" 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

" Perhaps all pleasure is only relief. "

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

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

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

" Love? What is it? Most natural painkiller. "

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

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

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

" In the U.S., you have to be a deviant or die of boredom. "

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

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

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

" An addict never stops growing. Stupider. "

William S. Burroughs

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

William S. Burroughs

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

William S. Burroughs

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

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

" It is indeed difficult to make a living as a writer, and my advice to anyone contemplating a literary career is to have some other trade. "

William S. Burroughs

" Nothing is true, everything is permitted. "

William S. Burroughs

" 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