William S. Burroughs Quotes

"There is no line between the 'real world' and 'world of myth and symbol.' Objects, sensations, hit with the impact of hallucination." -William S. Burroughs

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

"Faced by the actual practice of freedom, the French and American revolutions would be forced to stand by their words." -William S. Burroughs


"Madness is confusion of levels of fact...Madness is not seeing visions but confusing levels." -William S. Burroughs

"I have a strange feeling here of being outside any social context." -William Burroughs in Tangiers

“Most of the trouble in this world has been caused by folks who can't mind their own business, because they have no business of their own to mind, any more than a smallpox virus has.” -William S. Burroughs

"There couldn't be a society of people who didn't dream. They'd be dead in two weeks." -William S. Burroughs

"A paranoid-schizophrenic is a guy who just found out what’s going on." -William S. Burroughs

William Burroughs at Kerouac Alley