The Western Lands Quotes

“Knowing you might not make it... in that knowledge courage is born.”
― William S. Burroughs, The Western Lands

“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

“People have nothing to say, but they are afraid of saying nothing, so what they do say comes out flat and vapid and meaningless. The shadow of death is on every face.”
― William S. Burroughs, The Western Lands

“Many doctors are drawn to this profession (psychology) because they have an innate deficiency of insight into the motives, feelings and thoughts of others, a deficiency they hope to remedy by ingesting masses of data.”
― William S. Burroughs, The Western Lands

“There may be people who like centipedes... Personally, I would regard such an individual with deep suspicion. I have just petted my cat: "And how is this good little cat beast?" Now what sort of man or woman or monster would stroke a centipede on his underbelly? "And here is my good big centipede!" If such a man exists, I say kill him without more ado. He is a traitor to the human race.”
― William S. Burroughs, The Western Lands

“The Ancient Egyptians postulated seven souls.”

Top soul (Vicarious), and the first to leave at the moment of death, is Ren the Secret name. This corresponds to my Director. He directs the film of your life from conception to death. The Secret Name is the title of your film. When you die, that's where Ren came in.

Second soul (Jambi), and second one off the sinking ship, is Sekem: Energy, Power. LIGHT. The Director gives the orders, Sekem presses the right buttons.

Number three (Wings/Days) is Khu, the Guardian Angel. He, she or it is third man out...depicted as flying away across a full moon, a bird with luminous wings and head of light. The sort of thing you might see on a screen in an Indian restaurant in Panama. The Khu is responsible for the subject and can be injured in his defense - but not permanently, since the first three souls are eternal. They go back to Heaven for another vessel. The four remaining souls must take their chances with the subject in the land of the dead.

Number four (The Pot) is Ba, the Heart, often treacherous. This is a hawk's body with your face on it, shrunk down to the size of a fist. Many a hero has been brought down, like Samson, by a perfidious Ba.

Number five (L.C., Lost Keys, Rosetta Stoned) is Ka, the double, most closely associated with the subject. The Ka, which usually reaches adolescence at the time of bodily death, is the only reliable guide through the Land of the Dead to the Western Lands.

Number six (Instension) is Khaibit, the Shadow, Memory, your whole past conditioning from this and other lives.

Number seven (Right in Two) is Sekhu, the Remains”
― William S. Burroughs, The Western Lands

“I spit on the Christian God. When the White God arrived with the Spaniards, the Indians brought down fruit and corncakes and chocolate. The White Christian God proceeded to cut their hands off. He was not responsible for the Christian conquistadors? Yes, he was. Any God is responsible for his worshippers.”
― William S. Burroughs, The Western Lands

“The program of the ruling elite in Orwell's 1984 was: "A foot stamping on a human face forever!" This is naive and optimistic. No species could survive for even a generation under such program. This is not a program of eternal, or even long-range dominance. It is clearly an extermination program.”
― William S. Burroughs, The Western Lands

“England is like some stricken beast too stupid to know it is dead. Ingloriously foundering in its own waste products, the backlash and bad karma of empire.”
― William S. Burroughs, The Western Lands

“It is inconceivable that Homo Sapiens could last another thousand years in present form. People of such great stupidity and such barbarous manners. And what do years mean, apart from human measurement and perception? Does time pass if there is no one there to register its passing? Of course not, since Time is a figment of human perception.”
― William S. Burroughs, The Western Lands

“Kafka speaks of the point of no return. This is the most difficult of all points to reach. The game is called Find Your Adversary. The Adversary's game plan is to persuade you that he does not exist. "Why all the paranoia?" This is only one of his game plans. You find out he exists, and you are still a long way from confrontation, a long way. A dreary abrasive dull way, sad voices, dirtier, older.”
― William S. Burroughs, The Western Lands

“Governments fall from sheer indifference. Authority figures, deprived of the vampiric energy they suck off their constituents, are seen for what they are: dead empty masks manipulated by computers. And what is behind the computers? Remote control.”
― William S. Burroughs, The Western Lands

“The old writer couldn't write anymore because he had reached the end of words, the end of what can be done with words.”
― William S. Burroughs, The Western Lands

“No job too dirty for a fucking scientist.”
― William S. Burroughs, The Western Lands

“Are there things you would not do for any amount of money? For any consideration? For a young body? The Integrity Coin attests to the bearer's inaccessibility to any quantitative bribe. The coin certifies that the bearer has definitely refused the Devil's Bargain.”
― William S. Burroughs, The Western Lands

“Musical intelligence. Agent attends a concert and receives his instructions. Information and directives in and out through street singers, musical broadcasts, jukeboxes, records, high school bands, whistling boys, cabaret performers, singing waiters, transistor radios.”
― William S. Burroughs, The Western Lands

“("Is this supposed to be life? How do they dare to serve me such wretched fare? Shit, piss and stink until you get to like it. Life, my dear, is fit only for the consumption of an underprivileged vulture. What am I expected to do here?")”
― William S. Burroughs, The Western Lands

“So he starts faking it. He is putting out human stock without the names. Literally Nameless Assholes, NAs. Their name is mud. Their name is shit. Without Angel, Heart, Double or Shadow. Nothing but remains, kept operational by borrowed power overdrawn on the Energy Bank... physical bodies animated by bum life checks.”
― William S. Burroughs, The Western Lands

“Now when dealing with an adversary the strategy is to inveigle him or her into your territory. Instead of crossing the river, bring the people on the other side to your side, where you know the country and can marshal your allies.”
― William S. Burroughs, The Western Lands

“The Hindus teach that the Heaven World is more dangerous for the soul than the Hell World, since it is more deceptive and conduces to the fatal error of overconfidence and assumption of immunity. Like a fighter the soul must be constantly in training lest it grow soft on an ephemeral throne. So the splendor of the palace, the constant parades, the state barges, the gold and lapis lazuli, the chariots and bowmen, eat away one's awareness of the ultimate reality of conflict...”
― William S. Burroughs, The Western Lands

“There are other tricks: the use of generalities like "the man in the street" and the editorial "we" to establish a rapport of disapproval with the reader and at the same time to create a mental lacuna under cover of an insubstantial and unspecified "we." And the technique of the misunderstood word: pack a review with obscure words that send the reader to a dictionary. Soon the reader will feel a vague, slightly queasy revulsion for whatever is under discussion.”
― William S. Burroughs, The Western Lands

“Твоя смерть всегда с тобой. Тебе не надо далеко ходить, чтобы ее наитй"

Уильям Берроуз "Западные земли”
― Уильям Берроуз, The Western Lands

“Он - Бог Второй и Последней Попытки. Бог одинокого воина, Бог схватки на ножах, на мечах, Бог дуэли на пистолетах, Бог исследователей, первопроходцев неведомых дорог, первооткрывателей новых ремесел и орудий, тех кто отважился шагнуть в непроглядную тьму, в которую не входил до него ни один смертный... Бог мутации и Перемен, Бог надежды в безнадежности, он приносит с собой запах морей, обширных открытых пространств, запах отваги и целеустремленности... запах молчания, окружаюшего исход битвы"

Уильям Берроуз "Западные земли”
― Уильям Берроуз, The Western Lands

“Не призывай его, если ты не готов рискнуть, при почти полном отсутствии шансов, сделать ставку на невероятный исход. Призрачний Шанс потребует от тебя полной преданности и безграничной смелости. У него нет времени на тех, кто не платит по векселям, на трусов и колеблюшихся"

Уильям Берроуз "Западные земли”
― Уильям Берроуз, The Western Lands

“How long does it take a man to learn that he does not, cannot want what he 'wants'?”
― William S. Burroughs, The Western Lands