Writing prejudicial, off-putting reviews is a precise exercise in applied black magic. The reviewer can draw free-floating disagreeable associations to a book by implying that the book is completely unimportant without saying exactly why, and carefully avoiding any clear images… — William S. Burroughs Copy Share Image
Black magic operates most effectively in preconscious, marginal areas. Casual curses are the most effective. — William S. Burroughs Copy Share Image
“Control never be a means to any practical end. It can never be a means to anything but more control… Like punk.” — William S. Burroughs Copy Share
“Well as, one judge said to the other, 'Be just and if you can't be just be arbitrary.' Regret cannot observe customary obscenities.” — William S. Burroughs Copy Share
After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say 'I want to see the manager.' — William S. Burroughs Copy Share
For seven days she lay in bed looking sullenly at the ceiling as though resenting the death she had cultivated for so many years.… — William S. Burroughs Copy Share
Life is a cutup. And to pretend that you write or paint in a timeless vacuum is just simply . . . not .… — William S. Burroughs Copy Share
When all lies, deceit, pretense is stripped away, what remains? The truth of a painting, or a book or a man. — William S. Burroughs Copy Share
“There is no final enough of wisdom, experience - any fucking thing. No Holy Grail, No Final Satori, no solution. Just conflict. Only thing… — William S. Burroughs Copy Share
“For John Dillinger In hope he is still alive Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1986 In hope he is still alive Thanks for the wild… — William S. Burroughs Copy Share
“Did I ever tell you about the man who taught his asshole to talk? His whole abdomen would move up and down, you dig,… — William S. Burroughs Copy Share
You need a good bedside manner with doctors or you will get nowhere. — William S. Burroughs Copy Share
There couldn't be a society of people who didn't dream. They'd be dead in two weeks. — William S. Burroughs Copy Share
I prefer cats to people, for the most part. Most people aren't cute at all, and if they are cute they very rapidly outgrow… — William S. Burroughs Copy Share
[Arab peoples] are stuck back thousands of years and they think they're going to get out with a TV set. — William S. Burroughs Copy Share
“It is not the intensity but the duration of pain that breaks the will to resist.” — William S. Burroughs Copy Share
