Quote

Americans have a special horror of giving up control, of letting things happen in their own way without interference.

William S. Burroughs

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

William S. Burroughs
Age: 83 †
Born: 1914
Born: February 5
Died: 1997
Died: August 11
Essayist
Novelist
Painter
Photographer
Poet
Prosaist
Science Fiction Writer
Screenwriter
Writer
St. Louis
Missouri
William Seward Burroughs II
Uilʹi︠a︡m Berrouz
William Lee
William Burroughs
Ouiliam Baroouz
William Seward Burroughs
Willy Lee
William S. (William Seward) Burroughs
Special
Happen
Happens
Interference
Without
Letting
Giving
Horror
Way
Americans
Things
Control

More quotes by William S. Burroughs

Image
If you build a good name, eventually, that name will be its own currency.
William S. Burroughs
Image
A consumer society is about simplfying and degrading the consumer as well as the product.
William S. Burroughs
Image
A cat's rage is beautiful, burning with pure cat flame, all its hair standing up and crackling blue sparks, eyes blazing and sputtering.
William S. Burroughs
Image
Life is a vacation from two eternities.
William S. Burroughs
Image
How I hate those who are dedicated to producing conformity.
William S. Burroughs
Image
I like the idea of generalizing the narcotic thing by making it black meat addiction.
William S. Burroughs
Image
The country with a low birth rate and low death rate will be hardest hit - and so the poor may indeed inherit the earth, because they're healthier.
William S. Burroughs
Image
Perhaps all pleasure is only relief.
William S. Burroughs
Image
Most people don't see what's going on around them. That's my principal message to writers: 'For God's sake, keep your eyes open. Notice what's going on around you.'
William S. Burroughs
Image
The idea that anyone can use drugs and escape a horrible fate is anathema to these idiots. I predict in the near future right-wingers will use drug hysteria as a pretext to set up an international police apparatus.
William S. Burroughs
Image
In deep sadness there is no place for sentimentality. It is as final as the mountains: a fact. There it is. When you realize it you cannot complain.
William S. Burroughs
Image
Any unchecked impulse does, within the human body and psyche, lead to the destruction of the organism.
William S. Burroughs
Image
Virtue is simply happiness, and happiness is a by-product of function. You are happy when you are functioning.
William S. Burroughs
Image
Cut word lines — Cut music lines — Smash the control images — Smash the control machine — Burn the books — Kill the priests — Kill! Kill! Kill!
William S. Burroughs
Image
I had not taken a bath in a year nor changed my clothes or removed them except to stick a needle every hour in the fibrous grey wooden flesh of heroin addiction. I did absolutely nothing.
William S. Burroughs
Image
If a weaker baboon be attacked by a stronger baboon the weaker baboon will either (a) present his hrump fanny I believe is the word, gentlemen, heh heh for passive intercourse or (b) if he is a different type baboon more extrovert and well-adjusted, lead an attack on an even weaker baboon if he can find one.
William S. Burroughs
Image
Writers, like elephants, have long, vicious memories. There are things I wish I could forget.
William S. Burroughs
Image
Black magic operates most effectively in preconscious, marginal areas. Casual curses are the most effective.
William S. Burroughs
Image
Kerouac opened a million coffee bars and sold a million pairs of Levis to both sexes. Woodstock rises from his pages.
William S. Burroughs
Image
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.
William S. Burroughs