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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.

William S. Burroughs

Society is cancerous and bureaucracy is its cancer.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Cancer Sick Society
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.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Artifact Design Man Present Science Space Travel
Thanks, for a country where nobody is allowed to mind his own business. Thanks, for a nation of finks.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Allow Business Mindset Nation Sarcasm Thankful
Panic is the sudden realization that everything around you is alive.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Alive Panic Realize Science Sudden Yourself
(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

Amount Business Mindset Rule Yourself
Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Desperate Escape Hope Material Yourself
Every word is autobiographical, and every word is fiction.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Fiction Story Word
There is nothing more provocative than minding your own business.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Business Mindset Yourself
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.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Dominant Face Hate Hide Hope Horrible Planet Spiritual Stupidity
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
Too perfect to be sexually attractive.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Attractive Perfection Sexuality
I began to get a feeling familiar to me from my bartending days of being the only sane man in a nuthouse. It doesn’t make you feel superior but depressed and scared, because there is nobody you can contact.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Beginning Contact Depression Feeling Man Myself Scare Superior
Sometimes paranoia’s just having all the facts.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Fact Information
There is no intensity of love or feeling that does not involve the risk of crippling hurt. It is a duty to take this risk, to love and feel without defense or reserve.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Defense Feeling Intense Love Reserve Risk
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.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Assume Care Hate Myself People Position
I don’t have any politics. I feel that as soon as politics arises, things are already in a hopeless state of deterioration.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Feeling Hope Myself Politics Rise State
There couldn’t be a society of people who didn’t dream. They’d be dead in two weeks.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Death Dreams People Society
No one is ever really alone. You are part of everything alive.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Alive Alone Yourself
Paranoia is just having the right information.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Information Myself Right
Smash the control images. Smash the control machine.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Control Image Machine
If you weren’t surprised by your life you wouldn’t be alive. Life is surprise.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Alive Life Surprise Yourself
What does the money machine eat? It eats youth, spontaneity, life, beauty, and, above all, it eats creativity. It eats quality and sh*ts quantity.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Creativity Eat Machine Money Quality Spontaneous Youth
As soon as you know you are in prison, you have a possibility to escape.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Escape Possible Prison Yourself
Every man has inside himself a parasitic being who is acting not at all to his advantage.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Act Advantage Himself Man
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. BURROUGHS

Crazy Listening Mental Paid Sympathy Yourself
There is no line between the ‘real world’ and ‘world of myth and symbol.’ Objects, sensations, hit with the impact of hallucination.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

Hallucination Impact Reality Symbol World
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

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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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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