William S. Burroughs Ipsum

A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on. you can't fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal. which came first the intestine or the tapeworm? whether you sniff it smoke it eat it or shove it up your ass the result is the same: addiction. the best way to keep something bad from happening is to see it ahead of time... and you can't see it if you refuse to face the possibility. "it is you who will shut up sealed off. the silent, helpless suffering.

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. the way to kill a man or a nation is to cut off his dreams, the way the whites are taking care of the indians: killing their dreams, their magic, their familiar spirits. black magic operates most effectively in preconscious, marginal areas. casual curses are the most effective. perhaps all pleasure is only relief. the face of evil is always the face of total need. nobody owns life, but anyone who can pick up a frying pan owns death. whether you sniff it smoke it eat it or shove it up your ass the result is the same: addiction. there is nothing more provocative than minding your own business. thou shalt not be such a shit, you don't know you are one. you know a real friend? someone you know will look after your cat after you are gone. the best way to keep something bad from happening is to see it ahead of time... and you can't see it if you refuse to face the possibility. 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... as soon as you know you are in prison, you have a possibility to escape. danger is a biologic necessity, like dreams. if you face death, for that time, for the period of direct confrontation, you are immortal. then it developed sort of teethlike... but the asshole would eat its way through day and night. beating at it with his fists... nothing did any good, and the asshole said to him... "because we don't need you so, finally, his mouth sealed over... would have amputated spontaneously it was trapped inside the skull... sealed off. the brain must have died... and there was no more feeling in them what a horrible loutish planet this is. the dominant species consists of sadistic morons, faces bearing the hideous lineaments of spiritual famine swollen with stupid hate. hopeless rubbish..

A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on. in deep sadness there is no place for sentimentality. a cat's rage is beautiful, burning with pure cat flame, all its hair standing up and crackling blue sparks, eyes blazing and sputtering. like all pure creatures, cats are practical. the cat does not offer services. the cat offers itself. of course he wants care and shelter. you don't buy love for nothing. the only possible ethic is to do what one wants to do. 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. if i had my way we'd sleep every night all wrapped around each other like hibernating rattlesnakes. in the u.s. you have to be a deviant or die of boredom. 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) artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact. thou shalt not be such a shit, you don't know you are one. as a young child i wanted to be a writer because writers were rich and famous. they lounged around singapore and rangoon smoking opium in a yellow pongee silk suit. they sniffed cocaine in mayfair and they penetrated forbidden swamps with a faithful native boy and lived in the native quarter of tangier smoking hashish and languidly caressing a pet gazelle. and to start with it was like a novelty ventriloquist act. after a while, the ass started talking on its own. he would go in without anything prepared... and his ass would ad-lib and toss the gags back at him every time. then it developed sort of teethlike... "it is you who will shut up and grow there. and there was no more feeling in them.