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

William S. Burroughs

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" 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. "

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

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

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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. "

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" 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. "

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" Hemingway was a prisoner of his style. No one can talk like the characters in Hemingway except the characters in Hemingway. His style in the wildest sense finally killed him. "

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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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" 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

" 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

" I am getting so far out one day I won't come back at all. "

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

" Language is a virus from outer space. "

William S. Burroughs

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

William S. Burroughs

" An addict never stops growing. Stupider. "

William S. Burroughs

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

William S. Burroughs

" Perhaps all pleasure is only relief. "

William S. Burroughs

" I see no reason why the artistic world can't absolutely merge with Madison Avenue. Pop art is a move in that direction. Why can't we have advertisements with beautiful words and beautiful images? "

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

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

" A functioning police state needs no police. "

William S. Burroughs

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

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

" Gentle reader, the Fountain of Youth is radioactive, and those who imbibe its poisonous heavy waters will suffer the hideous fate of decaying metal. Yet almost without exception, the wretched idiot inhabitants of our benighted planet would gulp down this radioactive excrement if it were offered. "

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

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

William S. Burroughs

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

William S. Burroughs

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

William S. Burroughs

" 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