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" You can't fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal. "
William S. Burroughs
Good
Fake
You
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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.' "
William S. Burroughs
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Eyes
You
" No one owns life, but anyone who can pick up a frying pan owns death. "
William S. Burroughs
Life
Pick
Up
" Your knowledge of what is going on can only be superficial and relative. "
William S. Burroughs
Your
Only
Relative
" The only possible ethic is to do what one wants to do. "
William S. Burroughs
Wants
Possible
Ethic
" Our national drug is alcohol. We tend to regard the use any other drug with special horror. "
William S. Burroughs
Special
Other
Alcohol
" Perhaps all pleasure is only relief. "
William S. Burroughs
Pleasure
Relief
Perhaps
" 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. "
William S. Burroughs
Style
Finally
Him
" Black magic operates most effectively in preconscious, marginal areas. Casual curses are the most effective. "
William S. Burroughs
Magic
Black
Casual
" 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
You
Pet
Love
" Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer. "
William S. Burroughs
Learning
Questions
You
" 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
Career
Living
Trade
" Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact. "
William S. Burroughs
Mind
Real
Who
" You must learn to exist with no religion, no country, no allies. You must learn to live alone in silence. "
William S. Burroughs
Silence
Live
Alone
" Americans have a special horror of giving up control, of letting things happen in their own way without interference. "
William S. Burroughs
Giving
Special
Own
" 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
Direction
Words
Beautiful
" Scientology is a model control system, a state in fact with its own courts, police, rewards and penalties. "
William S. Burroughs
Own
Control
System
" My relationships with my cats has saved me from a deadly, pervasive ignorance. "
William S. Burroughs
Relationships
Me
Ignorance
" Virtue is simply happiness, and happiness is a by-product of function. You are happy when you are functioning. "
William S. Burroughs
Virtue
Happiness
Function
" In deep sadness there is no place for sentimentality. "
William S. Burroughs
Sadness
Sad
Place
" Language is a virus from outer space. "
William S. Burroughs
Communication
Language
Space
" The world wasn't a more tolerant place when I was a young man. Rather, they simply sidestepped all the issues. "
William S. Burroughs
Young Man
Man
Place
" Like all pure creatures, cats are practical. "
William S. Burroughs
Cats
Pure
Practical
" 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
Live
People
Police
" 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
Own
Trouble
World
" 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
War
Nature
Principles
" 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
Time
Down
Style
" I am getting so far out one day I won't come back at all. "
William S. Burroughs
I Am
Back
One Day
" There couldn't be a society of people who didn't dream. They'd be dead in two weeks. "
William S. Burroughs
Two
Who
Society
" The purpose of technology is not to confuse the brain but to serve the body. "
William S. Burroughs
Body
Brain
Purpose
" 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
Eyes
Blue
Hair