William S. Burroughs Quotes

If you weren't surprised by your life you wouldn't be alive.

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

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

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

In deep sadness there is no place for sentimentality.

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

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

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

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

I am not one of those weak-spirited, sappy Americans who want to be liked by all the people around them. I don’t care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do. The important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it. My affections, being concentrated over a few people, are not spread all over Hell in a vile attempt to placate sulky, worthless shits.

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

Which came first, the intestine or the tapeworm?

Man is an artifact designed for space travel. He is not designed to remain in his present biological state any more than a tadpole is designed to remain a tadpole.

Love? What is it? Most natural painkiller there is.

A paranoid man is a man who knows a little about what's going on.

In the US, you have to be a deviant or die of boredom.

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?

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