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" Sometimes paranoia's just having all the facts. "

William S. Burroughs

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

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" Americans have a special horror of giving up control, of letting things happen in their own way without interference. "

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" 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. "

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" 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.' "

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" 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. "

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

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

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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

" Our national drug is alcohol. We tend to regard the use any other drug with special horror. "

William S. Burroughs

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

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

" The aim of education is the knowledge, not of facts, but of values. "

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

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

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. "

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" After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say 'I want to see the manager.' "

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" No body of knowledge needs an organizational policy. Organizational policy can only impede the advancement of knowledge. There is a basic incompatibility between any organization and freedom of thought. "

William S. Burroughs

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

William S. Burroughs

" Language is a virus from outer space. "

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

" Smash the control images. Smash the control machine. "

William S. Burroughs

" The face of evil is always the face of total need. "

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" 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

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

William S. Burroughs

" An addict never stops growing. Stupider. "

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

" This is a war universe. War all the time. That is its nature. There may be other universes based on all sorts of other principles, but ours seems to be based on war and games. "

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

" A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on. "

William S. Burroughs

" 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