William S. Burroughs's Quotes

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.

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

Junk is the ideal product... the ultimate merchandise. No sales talk necessary. The client will crawl through a sewer and beg to buy.

Which came first the intestine or the tapeworm?

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

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

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.

Like all pure creatures, cats are practical.

Perhaps all pleasure is only relief.

You can't fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal.

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

Smash the control images. Smash the control machine.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact.

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

How I hate those who are dedicated to producing conformity.

Happiness is a byproduct of function, purpose, and conflict; those who seek happiness for itself seek victory without war.

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.

In deep sadness there is no place for sentimentality.

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

Silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing.

Sometimes paranoia's just having all the facts.