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William S. Burroughs

William S. Burroughs Quotes

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Famous William S. Burroughs Quotes

“Junk turns the user into a plant. Plants do not feel pain since pain has no function in a stationary organism. Junk is a pain killer. A plant has no libido in the human or animal sense. Junk replaces the sex drive. Seeding is the sex of the plant and the function of opium is to delay seeding. Perhaps the intense discomfort of withdrawal is the transition from plant back to animal, from a painless, sexless, timeless state back to sex and pain and time, from death back to life.”

FeelsHumansStatesPainTurnsSexAnimalFunctionPlantIntenseTransitionKillersUsersOrganismsTimelessDelayDiscomfortJunkWithdrawalOpiumStationaryPainlessLibidoSex Drive
Author:William S. Burroughs
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“The program of the ruling elite in Orwell's 1984 was: "A foot stamping on a human face forever!" This is naive and optimistic. No species could survive for even a generation under such program. This is not a program of eternal, or even long-range dominance. It is clearly an extermination program.”

HumansLongFacesForeverGenerationsFeetEternalProgramSpeciesOptimisticRangeElitesNaiveRulingDominanceHuman FacesExtermination
Book:Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader
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“I feel that the change, the mutation in consciousness, will occur spontaneously once certain pressures now in operation are removed. I feel that the principal instrument of monopoly and control that prevents expansion of consciousness is the word lines controlling thought, feeling and apparent sensory impressions of the human host.”

FeelsHumansFeelingsCertainLinesConsciousnessPressureInstrumentsImpressionOperationsHostPrincipalExpansionMonopolySensoryMutation
Author:William S. Burroughs
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“Last night I encountered a dream cat with a very long neck and a body like a human fetus, gray and transluscent. I don't know what it needs or how to provide for it. Another dream years ago of a human child with eyes on stalks. It is very small, but can walk and talk "Don't you want me?" Again, I don't know how to care for the child. But I am dedicated to protecting and nurturing him at any cost! It is the function of the Guardian to protect hybrids and mutants in the vulnerable stage of infancy.”

KnowsWantNeedsYearsHumansChildrenLongDreamBodyEyeCareLastsNightWalksKnow HowStageCostProtectYears AgoCatFunctionVulnerableNecksGrayDedicatedWant MeLast NightGuardianNurturingStalkingInfancyYou Want MeHybridFetusMutants
Author:William S. Burroughs
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“My general theory since 1971 has been that the word is literally a virus, and that it has not been recognized as such because it has achieved a state of relatively stable symbiosis with its human host; that is to say, the word virus (the other Half) has established itself so firmly as an accepted part of the human organism that it can now sneer at gangster viruses like smallpox and turn them in to the Pasteur Institute.”

HumansHas BeensStatesPastTurnsHalfTheoryAcceptedHostStableOrganismsVirusesInstituteOther HalfGangstersSneerSmallpoxSymbiosisPasteur
Book:The Adding Machine
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