William S. Burroughs Ipsum

Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact. be just and if you can't be just, be arbitrary. black magic operates most effectively in preconscious, marginal areas. casual curses are the most effective. the aim of education is the knowledge, not of facts, but of values. in my writing i am acting as a map maker, an explorer of psychic areas, a cosmonaut of inner space, and i see no point in exploring areas that have already been thoroughly surveyed. i don't care if people hate my guts; i assume most of them do. the important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it. you were not there for the beginning. you will not be there for the end. your knowledge of what is going on can only be superficial and relative i am not one of those weak-spirited, sappy americans who want to be liked by all the people around them. i don't care if people hate my guts; i assume most of them do. the important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it. my affections, being concentrated over a few people, are not spread all over hell in a vile attempt to placate sulky, worthless shits. the question is frequently asked: why does a man become a drug addict? the answer is that he usually does not intend to become an addict. you don't wake up one morning and decide to be a drug addict. it takes at least three months' shooting twice a day to get any habit at all. and you don't really know what junk sickness is until you have had several habits. it took me almost six months to get my first habit, and then the withdrawal symptoms were mild. i think it no exaggeration to say it takes about a year and several hundred injections to make an addict. the questions, of course, could be asked: why did you ever try narcotics? why did you continue using it long enough to become an addict? you become a narcotics addict because you do not have strong motivations in the other direction. junk wins by default. i tried it as a matter of curiosity. i drifted along taking shots when i could score. i ended up hooked. most addicts i have talked to report a similar experience. they did not start using drugs for any reason they can remember. they just drifted along until they got hooked. if you have never been addicted, you can have no clear idea what it means to need junk with the addict's special need. you don't decide to be an addict. one morning you wake up sick and you're an addict. (junky, prologue, p. xxxviii) thou shalt not be such a shit, you don't know you are one. i am getting so far out one day i won't come back at all. the dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set-up by the non-dreamers as soon as you know you are in prison, you have a possibility to escape. whether you like it or not, you are committed to the human endeavor. i cannot ally myself with such a purely negative goal as avoidance of suffering. suffering is a chance you take by the fact of being alive. panic is the sudden realization that everything around you is alive. it was unlike anything i ever heard. bubbly, thick, stagnant sound. a sound you could smell. this man worked for the carnival, you dig? and it wanted to be kissed, after that, he began waking up except for the eyes, you dig? it needed the eyes. and infiltrated and atrophied. so, the brain couldn't it was trapped inside the skull... the silent, helpless suffering and there was no more feeling in them.

I am getting so far out one day i won't come back at all. in my writing i am acting as a map maker, an explorer of psychic areas, a cosmonaut of inner space, and i see no point in exploring areas that have already been thoroughly surveyed. silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing. love is a haunting melody that i have never mastered, and i fear i never will. i am not one of those weak-spirited, sappy americans who want to be liked by all the people around them. i don't care if people hate my guts; i assume most of them do. the important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it. my affections, being concentrated over a few people, are not spread all over hell in a vile attempt to placate sulky, worthless shits. after one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say i want to see the manager. there is nothing more provocative than minding your own business. the junk merchant doesn't sell his product to the consumer, he sells the consumer to his product. he does not improve and simplify his merchandise. he degrades and simplifies the client. knowing you might not make it... in that knowledge courage is born. you know a real friend? someone you know will look after your cat after you are gone. cheat your landlord if you can -- and must -- but do not try to shortchange the muse. the dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set-up by the non-dreamers 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? perhaps my home is my dream city, more real than my waking life precisely because it has no relation to waking life... in the magical universe there are no coincidences and there are no accidents. nothing happens unless someone wills it to happen. that old feeling is still in my leaking heart. in the end, not me... he would tear it off his mouth except for the eyes, you dig? give orders anymore. sealed off. the silent, helpless suffering.

Language is a virus from outer space. a functioning police state needs no police. how i hate those who are dedicated to producing conformity. be just and if you can't be just, be arbitrary. the only possible ethic is to do what one wants to do. which came first the intestine or the tapeworm? in the u.s. you have to be a deviant or die of boredom. there are no innocent bystanders... what are they doing there in the first place? when you stop growing you start dying. i am getting so far out one day i won't come back at all. it is to be remembered that all art is magical in origin - music, sculpture, writing, painting - and by magical i mean intended to produce very definite results. paintings were originally formulae to make what is painted happen. art is not an end in itself, any more than einstein's matter-into-energy formulae is an end in itself. like all formulae, art was originally functional, intended to make things happen, the way an atom bomb happens from einstein's formulae. a cat's rage is beautiful, burning with pure cat flame, all its hair standing up and crackling blue sparks, eyes blazing and sputtering. we are all alone, born alone, die alone, and -- in spite of true romance magazines -- we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. i do not say lonely -- at least, not all the time -- but essentially, and finally, alone. this is what makes your self-respect so important, and i don't see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness how i hate those who are dedicated to producing conformity. nothing is true, everything is permitted. then it developed sort of teethlike... he thought this was cute at first he would tear it off his mouth and infiltrated and atrophied. so, the brain couldn't.