Language is a virus from outer space.
William S. Burroughs

Like all pure creatures, cats are practical.
William S. Burroughs

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 S. Burroughs

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

Nothing is true, everything is permitted.
William S. Burroughs

Our national drug is alcohol. We tend to regard the use any other drug with special horror.
William S. Burroughs

Perhaps all pleasure is only relief.
William S. Burroughs

Silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing.
William S. Burroughs

Smash the control images. Smash the control machine.
William S. Burroughs

Sometimes paranoia's just having all the facts.
William S. Burroughs

The aim of education is the knowledge, not of facts, but of values.
William S. Burroughs

The cat does not offer services. The cat offers itself. Of course he wants care and shelter. You don't buy love for nothing.
William S. Burroughs

The face of evil is always the face of total need.
William S. Burroughs

The only possible ethic is to do what one wants to do.
William S. Burroughs

The way to kill a man or a nation is to cut off his dreams, the way the whites are taking care of the Indians: killing their dreams, their magic, their familiar spirits.
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

Which came first the intestine or the tapeworm?
William S. Burroughs

You can't fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal.
William S. Burroughs

Your knowledge of what is going on can only be superficial and relative.
William S. Burroughs

Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.
William S. Burroughs