Quotes by William S. Burroughs

About William S. Burroughs:

William Seward Burroughs II is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th century". His influence is considered to have affected a range of popular culture as well as literature. Burroughs wrote eighteen novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays. Five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians, and made many appearances in films.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Some people like neat suburbs. I always am attracted to the rundown and the old and the offbeat.

William S. Burroughs

Smash the control images. Smash the control machine.

William S. Burroughs

Scientology is a model control system, a state in fact with its own courts, police, rewards and penalties.

William S. Burroughs

It is indeed difficult to make a living as a writer, and my advice to anyone contemplating a literary career is to have some other trade.

William S. Burroughs

An addict never stops growing. Stupider.

William S. Burroughs

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

William S. Burroughs

Hemingway was a prisoner of his style. No one can talk like the characters in Hemingway except the characters in Hemingway. His style in the wildest sense finally killed him.

William S. Burroughs

If everyone is to be made responsible for everything they do, you must extend responsibility beyond the level of conscious intention.

William S. Burroughs

Americans have a special horror of giving up control, of letting things happen in their own way without interference.

William S. Burroughs

Changes... can only be effected by alterations in the original. The only thing not prerecorded in a prerecorded universe are the prerecordings themselves. The copies can only repeat themselves word for word. A virus is a copy. You can pretty it up, c...

William S. Burroughs

Thinking is not enough. Nothing is. There is no final enough of wisdom, experience--any fucking thing. No Holy Grail, No Final Satori, no final solution. Just conflict.

William S. Burroughs

Whether you sniff it smoke it eat it or shove it up your ass the result is the same: addiction.

William S. Burroughs

All political movements are basically anti-creative — since a political movement is a form of war. “There’s no place for impractical dreamers around here,” that’s what they always say. “Your writing activities will be directed, kindly sto...

William S. Burroughs

Abandon all nations, the planet drifts to random insect doom.

William S. Burroughs

To be an outlaw you must first have a base in law to reject and get out of, I never had such a base. I never had a place I could call home that meant any more than a key to a house, apartment or hotel room. … Am I alien? Alien from what exactly? Pe...

William S. Burroughs

The first and most important thing an individual can do is to become an individual again, decontrol himself, train himself as to what is going on and win back as much independent ground for himself as possible

William S. Burroughs

I prefer cats to people, for the most part. Most people aren't cute, & if they are cute they rapidly outgrow it

William S. Burroughs

when I become death. Death is the seed from which I grow.

William S. Burroughs

...Communism, it's a reactive formation derived from capitalism. For this reason it's less flexible and has a lower survival potential. The days of laissez-faire capitalism are completely dead, and the assumptions of nineteenth-century Communism are ...

William S. Burroughs

The price an artist pays for doing what he wants is that he has to do it.

William S. Burroughs

You know, they ask me if I were on a desert island and I knew nobody would ever see what I wrote, would I go on writing. My answer is most emphatically yes. I would go on writing for company. Because I'm creating an imaginary — it's always imaginar...

William S. Burroughs

Author Bio

  • NameWilliam S. Burroughs
  • DescriptionAmerican novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter, and spoken word performer
  • AliasesWilliam Seward Burroughs II
  • BornFebruary 5, 1914
  • DiedAugust 2, 1997
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionWriter; Poet; Novelist; Essayist; Painter
  • WorksNaked Lunch
  • AwardsChevalier Des Arts Et Des Lettres?