William S. Burroughs Ipsum

Our national drug is alcohol. we tend to regard the use any other drug with special horror. a paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on. admittedly, a homosexual can be conditioned to react sexually to a woman, or to an old boot for that matter. in fact, both homo - and heterosexual experimental subjects have been conditioned to react sexually to an old boot, and you can save a lot of money that way. you can't fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal. there is no intensity of love or feeling that does not involve the risk of crippling hurt. it is a duty to take this risk, to love and feel without defense or reserve. if i had my way we'd sleep every night all wrapped around each other like hibernating rattlesnakes. your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer. love is a haunting melody that i have never mastered, and i fear i never will. i am getting so far out one day i won't come back at all. 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 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. day and night. and sticking candles up it, but... and the asshole said to him... in the end, not me... around here anymore. after that, he began waking up in the morning with transparentjelly... except for the eyes, you dig? it needed the eyes. it was trapped inside the skull... and then finally and there was no more feeling in them.

Perhaps all pleasure is only relief. smash the control images. smash the control machine. there is no intensity of love or feeling that does not involve the risk of crippling hurt. it is a duty to take this risk, to love and feel without defense or reserve. 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 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. in homosexual sex you know exactly what the other person is feeling, so you are identifying with the other person completely. in heterosexual sex you have no idea what the other person is feeling. 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. panic is the sudden realization that everything around you is alive. and built an act around it... "it is you who will shut up "because we don't need you after that, he began waking up and then finally the brain must have died... as one judge said to another judge: be just. and if you can't be just, be arbitrary. out of the closets and into the museums, libraries, architectural monuments, concert halls, bookstores, recording studios and film studios of the world. everything belongs to the inspired and dedicated thief.... words, colors, light, sounds, stone, wood, bronze belong to the living artist. they belong to anyone who can use them. loot the louvre! a bas l'originalit.

Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape. after one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say 'i want to see the manager.' our national drug is alcohol. we tend to regard the use any other drug with special horror. most of the trouble in this world has been caused by folks who can't mind their own business, because they have no business of their own to mind, any more than a smallpox virus has. 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. nothing is true, everything is permitted. 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. black magic operates most effectively in preconscious, marginal areas. casual curses are the most effective. 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. the cat does not offer services. the cat offers itself. of course he wants care and shelter. you don't buy love for nothing. you can't fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal. 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. 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. in the magical universe there are no coincidences and there are no accidents. nothing happens unless someone wills it to happen. panic is the sudden realization that everything around you is alive. that old feeling is still in my leaking heart. finally, it talked all the time, nothing did any good, and the asshole said to him... he would tear it off his mouth it needed the eyes..