"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 S. Burroughs

"As a young child I wanted to be a writer because writers were rich and famous. They lounged around Singapore and Rangoon smoking opium in a yellow pongee silk suit. They sniffed cocaine in Mayfair and they penetrated forbidden swamps with a faithful native boy and lived in the native quarter of Tangier smoking hashish and languidly caressing a pet gazelle."
— William S. Burroughs (The Adding Machine: Selected Essays)

"danger is a biologic necessity, like dreams. if you face death, for that time, for the period of
direct confrontation, you are immortal."
— William S. Burroughs (The Western Lands)

"Last night I encountered a dream cat with a very long neck and a body like a human fetus, gray and transluscent. I don't know what it needs or how to provide for it. Another dream years ago of a human child with eyes on stalks. It is very small, but can walk and talk "Don't you want me?" Again, I don't know how to care for the child. But I am dedicated to protecting and nurturing him at any cost! It is the function of the Gaurdian to protect hybrids and mutants in the vulnerable stage of infancy.
-The Cat Inside"
— William S. Burroughs

"some trillions of years ago a sloppy, dirty giant flicked grease from his fingers. One of those gobs of grease is our universe on its way to the floor. Splat!"
— Brion Gysin

"Man is a bad animal"
— Brion Gysin

"when I become death. Death is the seed from which I grow."
— William S. Burroughs

""What's with the serum?"
"I don't know, but it sounds ominous. We better put a telepathic direction finder on Benway. The man's not to be trusted. Might do almost anything...Turn a massacre into a sex orgy..."
"Or a joke."
"Precisely. Arty type...No principles..."
"
— William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch: The Restored Text)