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William S. Burroughs Quotes


Language is a virus from outer space.

Like all pure creatures, cats are practical.

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.

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.

Nothing is true, everything is permitted.

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

Perhaps all pleasure is only relief.

Silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing.

Smash the control images. Smash the control machine.

Sometimes paranoia's just having all the facts.

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

The cat does not offer services. The cat offers itself. Of course he wants care and shelter. You don't buy love for nothing.

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

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

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.

There couldn't be a society of people who didn't dream. They'd be dead in two weeks.

Which came first the intestine or the tapeworm?

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.

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