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William S. Burroughs Quotes

Novelist

William S. Burroughs was an American novelist known for his unique writing style and his significant influence on postmodern literature. His works often involve social criticism, political satire, and surrealistic elements.

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All Ifs People Thinking Writing Knows Men Want Facts Firsts Cat Feels Giving Needs Whole Drug Humans Way World Addiction Book

Famous William S. Burroughs Quotes

“Modern man has lost the option of silence.”

Men Lost Silence Modern Modern Man

Book:Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader

Source: Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader

“How long does it take man to realize that he cannot want what he wants? You have to live in hell to see heaven.”

Men Want Long Doe Heaven Realizing Hell

Author:William S. Burroughs

“The broken image of Man moves in minute by minute and cell by cell.... Poverty, hatred, war, police-criminals, bureaucracy, insanity, all symptoms of The Human Virus.”

Men Humans War Moving Poverty Minutes Broken Hatred Police Criminals Cells Insanity Bureaucracy Symptoms Viruses Broken Images

Book:Naked Lunch: The Restored Text

Source: Naked Lunch: The Restored Text

“Anslinger's reefer madness did not caution even the seeds of efficient, intelligent, ruthless action ... The same goes for Hoover, sniveling Nixon, the whole miserable, wretchedly evil lot of them ... not a man among them who could have pulled off a successful coup in a banana republic.”

Men Whole Action Evil Successful Madness Intelligent Seeds Miserable Republic Efficient Caution Ruthless Bananas Coups Hoover

Author:William S. Burroughs

“When all lies, deceit, pretense is stripped away, what remains? The truth of a painting, or a book or a man.”

Men Book Lying Painting Remains Deceit Pretense

Book:Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs

Source: Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs

“Man must get away from verbal forms to attain the consciousness, that which is there to be perceived at hand.”

Men Hands Form Consciousness Get Away

Author:William S. Burroughs

“If you talk you always end up with politics, it gets nowhere. I mean man it's strictly from the soft typewriter.”

Ifs Men Mean Ends Typewriters Mean Man

Author:William S. Burroughs

“In the event of atomic war there is a tremendous biological advantage in the so-called undeveloped areas that have a high birth rate and high death rate because, man, they can plow under those mutations.”

Men War Events Birth Advantage Areas Rate Mutation Atomic War Birth Rate

Author:William S. Burroughs

“I think Judge Learned Hand was a cultured, intelligent man.”

Thinking Men Hands Judging Intelligent Intelligent Man

Author:William S. Burroughs

“Every man has inside himself a parasitic being who is acting not at all to his advantage.”

Men Acting Advantage Every Man Hipster

Author:William S. Burroughs

“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.”

Men States Science Space Travel Math Physics Funny Travel Space Exploration Space Travel Outer Space Artifacts Tadpoles

Book:The Adding Machine: Selected Essays

Source: The Adding Machine: Selected Essays

“The way to kill a man or a nation is to cut off his dreams, the way the whites are taking care of the Indians: killing their dreams, their magic, their familiar spirits.”

Men Way Dream Care Spirit Nations Cutting Magic Killing Familiar Indian

Book:The Place of Dead Roads: A Novel

Source: The Place of Dead Roads: A Novel

“The world wasn't a more tolerant place when I was a young man. Rather, they simply sidestepped all the issues.”

Men World Young Issues Young Man

Author:William S. Burroughs

“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.”

Men Feels Feelings House Fear Scared Superiors Contact Nuts Sane

Author:William S. Burroughs

“O death where is thy sting? The man is never on time.”

Men Beat Generation

Book:Naked Lunch: The Restored Text

Source: Naked Lunch: The Restored Text

“The study of thinking machines teaches us more about the brain than we can learn by introspective methods. Western man is externalizing himself in the form of gadgets.”

Thinking Men Form Brain Teach Study Machines Method Western Introspective Gadgets

Book:Naked lunch

Source: Naked lunch

“The face of "evil" is always the face of total need. A dope fiend is a man in total need of dope. Beyond a certain frequency need knows absolutely no limit or control. In the words of total need: "Wouldn't you?" Yes you would. You would lie, cheat, inform on your friends, steal, do anything to satisfy total need. Because you would be in a state of total sickness, total possession, and not in a position to act in any other way. Dope fiends are sick people who cannot act other than they do. A rabid dog cannot choose but bite.”

People Knows Men Way Needs States Would Be Funny Faces Lying Certain Evil Dog Position Drug Limits Sick Possession Stealing Sickness Bites Cheat Frequency Dope

Author:William S. Burroughs

“Now what sort of man or woman or monster would stroke a centipede I have ever seen? And here is my good big centipede! If such a man exists, I say kill him without more ado. He is a traitor to the human race.”

Ifs Men Humans Bigs Race Monsters Human Race Strokes Insects Traitor Centipedes

Book:The Western Lands

Source: The Western Lands

About the Author

Born: February 5, 1914
Died: August 2, 1997
Known for: Novelist
Quotes: 436

Books & Sources

Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs ReaderRelated source material

Naked Lunch: The Restored TextRelated source material

Burroughs Live: The Collected Interviews of William S. Burroughs, 1960-1997Related source material

Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. BurroughsRelated source material

The Western LandsRelated source material

Naked lunchRelated source material

The Cat InsideRelated source material

Ah Pook is here, and other textsRelated source material

The Adding Machine: Selected EssaysRelated source material

And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their TanksRelated source material

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