American - Writer | February 5, 1914 - August 2, 1997
Most people don't see what's going on around them. That's my principal message to writers: 'For God's sake, keep your eyes open. Notice what's going on around you.'
William S. Burroughs
GodEyesPeopleYouPrincipalSee
Happiness is a byproduct of function, purpose, and conflict; those who seek happiness for itself seek victory without war.
HappinessPurposeWarVictorySeek
Black magic operates most effectively in preconscious, marginal areas. Casual curses are the most effective.
BlackMagicCasualMostEffective
Junk is the ideal product... the ultimate merchandise. No sales talk necessary. The client will crawl through a sewer and beg to buy.
ProductWillTalkSalesThroughBuy
Every man has inside himself a parasitic being who is acting not at all to his advantage.
ManActingInsideBeingAdvantage
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military.
LivePolicePeopleSocietyHell
A functioning police state needs no police.
PoliceStateNeedsPolice State
Our national drug is alcohol. We tend to regard the use any other drug with special horror.
AlcoholSpecialHorrorOurNational
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.
TravelManSpacePresentMoreHe
Nothing is true, everything is permitted.
TrueNothingEverythingPermitted
Speaking for myself, art differs from writing in that I never know what I'm going to paint until I paint it, so it's almost like automatic writing. A writer, on the other hand, can't help but know what he's going to write, because the activity demands a degree of premeditation.
ArtMyselfWritingHelpKnowHand
Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact.
ChangeMindPoliticalRealArtists
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