A List of Famous William S. Burroughs Quotes Quotations
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A list of quotes from William S. Burroughs. Here are the best William S. Burroughs quotes on various subjects. The William S. Burroughs quotations list is alphabetical but can be sorted by any column. Enjoy these sayings coined by William S. Burroughs. You can use the items in this factual list to create a new list, re-rank it to fit your opinion, then share it with your Facebook friends, Twitter followers or with any other social networks you use on a regular basis.

 
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Order Name Author Subjects
  1. 1

    A functioning police state needs no police.

    William S. Burroughs
    Police
  2. 2

    Admittedly, a homosexual can be conditioned to react sexually to a woman, or to an old boot for that matter. In fact, both homo -- and heterosexual experimental subjects have been conditioned to react sexually to an old boot, and you can save a lot of money that way.

    William S. Burroughs
    Human sexuality
  3. 3

    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.

    William S. Burroughs
    Weapon
  4. 4

    After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say I want to see the manager.

    William S. Burroughs
    World
  5. 5

    America is not a young land: it is old and dirty and evil before the settlers, before the Indians. The evil is there waiting.

    William S. Burroughs
    United States of America
  7. 6

    America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers.

    William S. Burroughs
    United States of America
  8. 7

    Anything that can be done chemically can be done by other means.

    William S. Burroughs
    Methods
  9. 8

    Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact.

    William S. Burroughs
    Arts and Artists
  10. 9

    Black magic operates most effectively in preconscious, marginal areas. Casual curses are the most effective.

    William S. Burroughs
    Magic
  11. 10

    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
    Desperation
  12. 11

    Humility is indeed beatness, a compulsory virtue that no one exhibits unless he has to.

    William S. Burroughs
    Humility
  13. 12

    I feel that any form of so called psychotherapy is strongly contraindicated for addicts. The question Why did you start using narcotics in the first place? should never be asked. It is quite as irrelevant to treatment as it would be to ask a malarial patient why he went to a malarial area.

    William S. Burroughs
    Addiction
  14. 13

    I think the ideal situation for a family is to be completely incestuous.

    William S. Burroughs
    Family
  15. 14

    I think there are innumerable gods. What we on earth call God is a little tribal God who has made an awful mess. Certainly forces operating through human consciousness control events.

    William S. Burroughs
    God
  16. 15

    In deep sadness there is no place for sentimentality.

    William S. Burroughs
    Grief
  18. 16

    Intelligence and war are games, perhaps the only meaningful games left. If any player becomes too proficient, the game is threatened with termination.

    William S. Burroughs
    Games
  19. 17

    Junk is the ideal product... the ultimate merchandise. No sales talk necessary. The client will crawl through a sewer and beg to buy.

    William S. Burroughs
    Drug
  20. 18

    Language is a virus from outer space.

    William S. Burroughs
    Language
  21. 19

    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
    Outer space
  22. 20

    Most of the trouble in this world has been caused by folks who can't mind their own business, because they have no business of their own to mind, any more than a smallpox virus has.

    William S. Burroughs
    Intervention
  23. 21

    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.

    William S. Burroughs
    Words
  24. 22

    No atomic physicist has to worry, people will always want to kill other people on a mass scale. Sure, he's got the fridge full of sausages and spring water.

    William S. Burroughs
    Physics
  25. 23

    Nothing exists until or unless it is observed. An artist is making something exist by observing it. And his hope for other people is that they will also make it exist by observing it. I call it creative observation. Creative viewing.

    William S. Burroughs
    Perception
  26. 24

    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.

    William S. Burroughs
    Insect
  27. 25

    Out of the closets and into the museums, libraries, architectural monuments, concert halls, bookstores, recording studios and film studios of the world. Everything belongs to the inspired and dedicated thief... Words, colors, light, sounds, stone, wood, bronze belong to the living artist. They belong to anyone who can use them. Loot the Louver! A bas l Originality, the sterile and assertive ego that imprisons us as it creates. Vive le sol -- pure, shameless, total. We are not responsible. Steal anything in sight.

    William S. Burroughs
    Inspiration

Showing items 1 - 25 of 35

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