William S. Burroughs
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"William Seward Burroughs II" was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, painting/painter, and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major Postmodern literature/postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th century". His influence is considered to have affected a range of popular culture as well as literature. Burroughs wrote 18 novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays. Five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians, and made many appearances in films.

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After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say 'I want to see the manager.'

A functioning police state needs no police.

(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.

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.

Silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing.

Every man has inside himself a parasitic being who is acting not at all to his advantage.

Perhaps all pleasure is only relief.

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

Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape.

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.

Anything that can be done chemically can be done by other means.

Paranoia means having all the facts.

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.

In the magical universe there are no coincidences and there are no accidents. Nothing happens unless someone wills it to happen.

A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on.