William S. Burroughs Ipsum

After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say 'i want to see the manager.' happiness is a byproduct of function, purpose, and conflict; those who seek happiness for itself seek victory without war. 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. be just and if you can't be just, be arbitrary. 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. smash the control images. smash the control machine. your knowledge of what is going on can only be superficial and relative. silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing. 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 in the u.s. you have to be a deviant or die of boredom. never do business with a religious son-of-a-bitch. his word ain't worth a shit -- not with the good lord telling him how to fuck you on the deal. 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) there couldn't be a society of people who didn't dream. they'd be dead in two weeks. 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. every man has inside himself a parasitic being who is acting not at all to his advantage. i am getting so far out one day i won't come back at all. hustlers of the world, there is one mark you cannot beat: the mark inside. 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. how i hate those who are dedicated to producing conformity. 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. but the asshole would eat its way through around here anymore. after that, he began waking up all over his mouth. so, finally, his mouth sealed over... that's the one thing the brain must have died... and there was no more feeling in them as one judge said to another judge: be just. and if you can't be just, be arbitrary..

A functioning police state needs no police. 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. silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing. smash the control images. smash the control machine. desperation is the raw material of drastic change. only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape. 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 never do business with a religious son-of-a-bitch. his word ain't worth a shit -- not with the good lord telling him how to fuck you on the deal. the face of 'evil' is always the face of total need. there couldn't be a society of people who didn't dream. they'd be dead in two weeks. thou shalt not be such a shit, you don't know you are one. 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. cheat your landlord if you can -- and must -- but do not try to shortchange the muse. 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. 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 panic is the sudden realization that everything around you is alive. then it developed sort of teethlike... he thought this was cute at first finally, it talked all the time, day and night. beating at it with his fists... in the end, not me... that the asshole couldn't do was see. give orders anymore. sealed off. the silent, helpless suffering.

Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer. language is a virus from outer space. desperation is the raw material of drastic change. only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape. there couldn't be a society of people who didn't dream. they'd be dead in two weeks. 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. the aim of education is the knowledge, not of facts, but of values. the only possible ethic is to do what one wants to do. a paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on. desperation is the raw material of drastic change. only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape. 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 there is nothing more provocative than minding your own business. artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact. 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... the dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set-up by the non-dreamers in the magical universe there are no coincidences and there are no accidents. nothing happens unless someone wills it to happen. i am not a person and i am not an animal. there is something i am here for something i must do before i can go. little raspy incurving hooks he thought this was cute at first and built an act around it... his pants and start talking on the street... and the pieces would stick to his hands... and grow there. and infiltrated and atrophied. it was trapped inside the skull... for a while, you could see... as one judge said to another judge: be just. and if you can't be just, be arbitrary..