Quotations From WILLIAM BURROUGHS

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• 11.

  The exact objectives of Islam Inc. are obscure. Needless to say everyone involved has a different angle, and they all intend to cross each other up somewhere along the line.

  William Burroughs (b. 1914), U.S. author. "Islam Inc. And the Parties of Interzone," The Naked Lunch (1959).
• 12.

  I think the ideal situation for a family is to be completely incestuous.

  William Burroughs (b. 1914), U.S. author. Taped conversation, 1980, New York City. "On Dreams," Victor Bockris, With William Burroughs: A Report from the Bunker (1981).
  
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• 13.

  There couldn't be a society of people who didn't dream. They'd be dead in two weeks.

  William Burroughs (b. 1914), U.S. author. Quoted in Victor Bockris, With William Burroughs: A Report from the Bunker, "On Dreams," (1981). Taped conversation, 1974, New York City.
  
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• 14.

  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.

  William Burroughs (b. 1914), U.S. author. "Civilian Defense," The Adding Machine (1985).
  
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• 15.

  The face of "evil" is always the face of total need.

  William Burroughs (b. 1914), U.S. author. Evergreen Review (Jan./Feb. 1960). Deposition: Testimony Concerning a Sickness (1959). The essay was later published as the introduction to The Naked Lunch in the 1962 edition.
  
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• 16.

  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.

  William Burroughs (b. 1914), U.S. author. "A Word to the Wise Guy," The Adding Machine (1985).
• 17.

  A junky runs on junk time. When his junk is cut off, the clock runs down and stops. All he can do is hang on and wait for non-junk time to start.

  William Burroughs (b. 1914), U.S. author. Junkie, ch. 10 (1953).
  
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• 18.

  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 Burroughs (b. 1914), U.S. author. Quoted in Victor Bockris, "On Men," With William Burroughs: A Report from the Bunker (1981).
• 19.

  America is not a young land: it is old and dirty and evil before the settlers, before the Indians. The evil is there waiting.

  William Burroughs (b. 1914), U.S. author. The Naked Lunch, p. 24 (1959, repr. 1990).
  
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• 20.

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

  William Burroughs (b. 1914), U.S. author. The Western Lands, ch. 5 (1987).
  
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