Do not proffer sympathy to the mentally ill; it is a bottomless pit. Tell them firmly, “I am not paid to listen to this drivel – you are a terminal fool!” Otherwise, they make you as crazy as they are.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHSIf you weren’t surprised by your life you wouldn’t be alive. Life is surprise.
More William S. Burroughs Quotes
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Open your mind and let the pictures out
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After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say ‘I want to see the manager.’
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Every word is autobiographical, and every word is fiction.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS -
I am getting so far out one day I won’t come back at all.
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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.
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Silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing.
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When you cut into the present the future leaks out.
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What a horrible loutish planet this is. the dominant species consists of sadistic morons, faces bearing the hideous lineaments of spiritual famine swollen with stupid hate. Hopeless rubbish.
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A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what’s going on.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS -
Black magic operates most effectively in preconscious, marginal areas. Casual curses are the most effective.
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Life is a vacation from two eternities, who wants to waste those precious years worrying about what happens when you get back to forever?
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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.
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The best way to keep something bad from happening is to see it ahead of time, and you can’t see it if you refuse to face the possibility.
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Language is a virus from outer space.
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(1) Never give anything away for nothing. (2) Never give more than you have to give (always catch the buyer hungry and always make him wait). (3) Always take everything back if you possibly can.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS






