If you weren't surprised by your life you wouldn't be alive. Life is surprise. William S. Burroughs More Quotes by William S. Burroughs More Quotes From William S. Burroughs What originally established the band was cover songs like Not Fade Away. Then, later on, we got more well-known ones like Satisfaction, which you might say echoed the thinking of, well, any generation you care to name, including the present one. But we didn't set out on bits of paper that we were going to be the voice of a generation. The original aim of the Rolling Stones was to play blues. It wasn't even to play rock music. William S. Burroughs playsongthinking The Federal Narcotics Bureau does a grave disservice by disseminating a lot of misinformation. Most of what they say is such nonsense that I didn't believe them about addiction. William S. Burroughs addictiondoebelieve If the soft machine works, don't fix it. If it works, don't fix it. William S. Burroughs machinesifs The idea was that we would decide the order when we looked at the proofs. I remember Brion Gysin saying "Well, why change it? It's perfect the way it is, the way it came from the printer." Made one major change, that is, the first chapter that came from the printers, which would be the beginning, we moved to the end. The first chapter became the last chapter. There's no actual cutups in Naked Lunch. William S. Burroughs lunchorderideas Last night I woke up with someone squeezing my hand. It was my other hand. William S. Burroughs lastsnighthands 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. William S. Burroughs birth-ratemenwar 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. William S. Burroughs optimisticfeetlong What are Americans? We've got everything from sharecroppers to atomic physicist here, and there's certainly no uniformity in their thought processes. There's very little they have in common. In fact, Americans should we say, have less in common than any other nationality. William S. Burroughs here-and-therelittlesfacts 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 creativityartistpeople I've seen villages in South America with no police whatever. Then the cops would arrive, then the sanitary inspectors, and before you know it they've got all the problems - crime, juvenile delinquency, the whole works - just like us. William S. Burroughs villagepoliceamerica Junk takes everything and gives nothing but insurance against junk sickness. William S. Burroughs junksicknessgiving I was thinking about New Mexico, and I rounded the corner in New York, and there was a New Mexico license plate: "New Mexico, land of enchantment." William S. Burroughs landnew-yorkthinking Tell the truth once and for all and shut up forever. William S. Burroughs shut-uptelling-the-truthforever You see, should I stand in front of a landscape and paint it, I'm completely ignoring the factor of time. While I am painting it, it's changing, clouds are changing, all sorts of things. So there's the myth there of someone creating in a timeless vacuum. William S. Burroughs vacuumscreatingclouds The dark Gods of pain are surfacing from the immemorial filth of time. William S. Burroughs filthpaindark Well, "disgusting" doesn't refer to the books but to the subjective reaction of the person making the complaint. I don't think that anything is disgusting per se. These words "disgusting" and "filthy," etc., have prevented us from undertaking any scientific experimentation in sexual matters. William S. Burroughs matterbookthinking I am trying like Klee, to create something that will have a life of its own, that can put me in real danger, a danger which I willingly take on myself. William S. Burroughs realdangertrying Time: a landing field! Death needs time like a junkie needs junk. William S. Burroughs junkfieldsneeds The line between inner and outer landscapes is breaking down. Earthquakes can result from seismic upheavals within the human mind. The whole random universe of the industrial age is breaking down into cryptic fragments. William S. Burroughs agemindearthquakes The Planet drifts to random insect doom. William S. Burroughs insectsapocalypseplanets
