Quote

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.

William S. Burroughs

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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
Feels
Risk
Love
Hurt
Crippling
Feeling
Reserve
Feelings
Involve
Doe
Reserves
Without
Intensity
Take
Defense
Feel
Duty

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I think all writers write for an audience. There is no such thing as writing for yourself.
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Quien sabe? Not me. The older I get the less I sabe, the less wisdom, maturity and caution I have.
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Tell the truth once and for all and shut up forever.
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Black magic operates most effectively in preconscious, marginal areas. Casual curses are the most effective.
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Victimless crimes are the lifeline of the RIGHT virus. And there is a growing recognition, even in official quarters, that victimless crimes should be removed from the books or subject to minimal penalties.
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Hemingway was a prisoner of his style. No one can talk like the characters in Hemingway except the characters in Hemingway. His style in the wildest sense finally killed him.
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By the flaws in the picture the truth will emerge.
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When you get to be my age there are more and more people you have known that you miss. Brion [Gysin], Antony Balch, Ian Summerville are ones I think of right away I was quite close to.
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If I had my way we'd sleep every night all wrapped around each other like hibernating rattlesnakes.
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After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say 'I want to see the manager.'
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I read Mailer's Ancient Evenings with great interest because I was interested in . . . the seven souls structure, which was very helpful to me in Western Lands. And also in Place of Dead Roads. So that's Mailer.
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I see no reason why the artistic world can't absolutely merge with Madison Avenue. Pop art is a move in that direction. Why can't we have advertisements with beautiful words and beautiful images?
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danger is a biologic necessity, like dreams. if you face death, for that time, for the period of direct confrontation, you are immortal.
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Now all politicians assume a necessity of control, the more efficient the control the better.
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There is only one thing a writer can write about: what is in front of his senses at the moment of writing... I am a recording instrument... I do not presume to impose story plot continuity... Insofar as I succeed in Direct recording of certain areas of psychic process I may have limited function... I am not an entertainer.
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There are no innocent bystanders ... what are they doing there in the first place?
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Panic is the sudden realization that everything around you is alive.
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Love is a haunting melody that I have never mastered, and I fear I never will.
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I miss you so much your absence causes me, at times, accute pain. I don't mean sexually. I mean in connection with my writing.
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Any belief in Creators or Purpose is wishful thinking. And when you point out that perhaps ALL thinking is wishful, reactions of intense irritation give evidence that we are not dealing with logic but with faith.
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