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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

A consumer society is about simplfying and degrading the consumer as well as the product.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Consumer Production Simplicity Society
If I had my way we’d sleep every night all wrapped around each other like hibernating rattlesnakes.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Myself Sleep Togetherness Way
Silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

People Silence Verbal
I miss you so much your absence causes me, at times, accute pain. I don’t mean sexually. I mean in connection with my writing.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Absence Connection I Miss You Myself Pain Time Writing
The nonconformist here may be “beat down” by life but still has a beauty in his or her longing for freedom and for an awakening of the mind.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Awakening Defeat Freedom Life Mindset
In my writing I am acting as a map maker, an explorer of psychic areas, a cosmonaut of inner space, and I see no point in exploring areas that have already been thoroughly surveyed.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Act Areas Explorer Myself Point Space Survey Writing
Whether you like it or not, you are committed to the human endeavor. I cannot ally myself with such a purely negative goal as avoidance of suffering. Suffering is a chance you take by the fact of being alive.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Alive Avoid Commitment Fact Goal Human Myself Negative Suffering
If you weren’t surprised by your life you wouldn’t be alive. Life is surprise.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Alive Life Surprise Yourself
By the flaws in the picture the truth will emerge.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Emerge Flaw Photograph Truth
People have nothing to say, but they are afraid of saying nothing, so what they do say comes out flat and vapid and meaningless. The shadow of death is on every face.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Afraid Face Meaning People Shadow
Once the law starts asking questions, there’s no stopping them.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Law Question Start Stop
In the U.S., you have to be a deviant or die of boredom.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Boredom Country Die
The first and most important thing an individual can do is to become an individual again, decontrol himself, train himself as to what is going on and win back as much independent ground for himself as possible
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Himself Important Individual Possible Training Win
Life is a vacation from two eternities, who wants to waste those precious years worrying about what happens when you get back to forever?
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Forever Life Time Waste Yourself
I bear my burden proudly for all to see, to conquer prejudice and ignorance and hate with knowledge and sincerity and love. Whenever you are threatened by a hostile presence, you emit a thick cloud of love like an octopus squirts out ink.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Burden Hate Ignorance Knowledge Love Prejudice Presence Proud Sincere Threat Yourself
I am not a person and I am not an animal. There is something I am here for something I must do before I can go.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Animal Death Myself Person Philosophy Purpose

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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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