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. 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. there couldn't be a society of people who didn't dream. they'd be dead in two weeks. the face of evil is always the face of total need. 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. love is a haunting melody that i have never mastered, and i fear i never will. 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) when you stop growing you start dying. 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... 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... little raspy incurving hooks and started eating. beating at it with his fists... and sticking candles up it, but... nothing did any good, in the end, not me... like a tadpole's tail all over his mouth. he would tear it off his mouth it needed the eyes. and there was no more feeling in them.

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. a cat's rage is beautiful, burning with pure cat flame, all its hair standing up and crackling blue sparks, eyes blazing and sputtering. you can't fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal. which came first the intestine or the tapeworm? love is a haunting melody that i have never mastered, and i fear i never will. in the u.s. you have to be a deviant or die of boredom. love? what is it? most natural painkiller what there is. after one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say i want to see the manager. i am getting so far out one day i won't come back at all. 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 nothing is true, everything is permitted. panic is the sudden realization that everything around you is alive. he thought this was cute at first it would get drunk, too, and have crying jags. same as any other mouth. finally, it talked all the time, in the morning with transparentjelly... so, finally, his mouth sealed over... and the whole head... except for the eyes, you dig? nerve connections were blocked... and infiltrated and atrophied..

A functioning police state needs no police. after one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say 'i want to see the manager.' you can't fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal. a paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on. a psychotic is a guy who's just found out what's going on. love is a haunting melody that i have never mastered, and i fear i never will. love? what is it? most natural painkiller what there is. there are no innocent bystanders... what are they doing there in the first place? there couldn't be a society of people who didn't dream. they'd be dead in two weeks. i bear my burden proudly for all to see, to conquer prejudice and ignorance and hate with knowledge and sincerity and love. whenever you are threatened by a hostile presence, you emit a thick cloud of love like an octopus squirts out ink... 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. hustlers of the world, there is one mark you cannot beat: the mark inside. danger is a biologic necessity, like dreams. if you face death, for that time, for the period of direct confrontation, you are immortal. little raspy incurving hooks and started eating. his pants and start talking on the street... and it wanted to be kissed, day and night. "it is you who will shut up around here anymore. i can talk and eat and shit." in the morning with transparentjelly... and the pieces would stick to his hands... like burning gasoline jelly and infiltrated and atrophied..