William S. Burroughs Quotes

"A functioning police state needs no police. "
-William S. Burroughs

"Silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing."
-William S. Burroughs

"In the U.S. you have to be a deviant or exist in extreme boredom... Make no mistake, all intellectuals are deviants in the U.S."
-William S. Burroughs

"Perhaps all pleasure is only relief."
-William S. Burroughs in Pleasure quotes.

"Junk is the ultimate merchandise. The junk merchant does not sell his product to the consumer, he sells the consumer to the product. He does not improve and simplify his merchandise, he degrades and simplifies the client."
-William S. Burroughs

"(1) Never give anything away for nothing. (2) Never give more than you have to give (always catch the buyer hungry and always make him wait). (3) Always take everything back if you possibly can."
-William S. Burroughs

"Anything that can be done chemically can be done by other means. "
-William S. Burroughs

"In the magical universe there are no coincidences and there are no accidents. Nothing happens unless someone wills it to happen."
-William S. Burroughs

"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."
-William S. Burroughs

"Paranoia means having all the facts."
-William S. Burroughs

"Happiness is a byproduct of function, purpose, and conflict; those who seek happiness for itself seek victory without war."
-William S. Burroughs

"Every man has inside himself a parasitic being who is acting not at all to his advantage."
-William S. Burroughs

"A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on."
-William S. Burroughs