Queer Quotes

“In deep sadness there is no place for sentimentality. It is as final as the mountains: a fact. There it is. When you realize it you cannot complain.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“Like many people who have nothing to do, he was very resentful of any claims on his time.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“A curse. Been in our family for generations. The Lees have always been perverts. I shall never forget the unspeakable horror that froze the lymph in my glands when the baneful word seared my reeling brain—I was a homosexual. I thought of the painted simpering female impersonators I'd seen in a Baltimore nightclub. Could it be possible I was one of those subhuman things? I walked the streets in a daze like a man with a light concussion. I would've destroyed myself. And a wise old queen—Bobo, we called her—taught me that I had a duty to live and bear my burden proudly for all to see. Poor Bobo came to a sticky end - he was riding in the Duke Devanche's Hispano Suissa when his falling hemorrhoids blew out of the car and wrapped around the rear wheel. He was completely gutted leaving an empty shell sitting there on the giraffe skin upholstry. Even the eyes and the brain went with a horrible "shlupping" sound. The Duke says he would carry that ghastly "shlup" with him to his mausoleum.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“Death was in every cell of his body. He gave off a faint, greenish steam of decay. Lee imagined he would glow in the dark.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“Lee watched the thin hands, the beautiful violet eyes, the flush of excitement on the boy's face. An imaginary hand projected with such force it seemed Allerton must feel the touch of ectoplasmic fingers caressing his ear, phantom thumbs smoothing his eyebrows, pushing the hair back from his face. Now Lee's hands were running down his ribs, the stomach. Lee felt the aching pain of desire in his lungs.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“The rudeness of many Americans depressed him, a rudeness based on a solid ignorance of the whole concept of manners, and on the proposition that for social purposes, all people are more or less equal and interchangeable.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“Sit down on your ass, or what's left of it after four years in the navy.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“Anything that can be accomplished chemically can be accomplished in other ways.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“He felt a killing hate for the stupid, ordinary, disapproving people who kept him from doing what he wanted to do. "Someday I am going to have things just like I want," he said to himself. "And if any moralizing son of a bitch gives me any static, they will fish him out of the river.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“How did we all get here? Spot of trouble in our old countries.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“A curse. Been in our family for generations. The Lees have always been perverts. I shall never forget the unspeakable horror that froze the lymph in my glands—the lymph glands that is, of course—when the baneful word seared my reeling brain: I was a homosexual. I thought of the painted, simpering female impersonators I'd seen in a Baltimore nightclub. Could it be possible I was one of those subhuman things? I walked the streets in a daze like a man with a light concussion—just a minute, Doctor Kildare, this isn't your script. I might well destroyed myself, ending an existence which seemed to offer nothing but grotesque misery and humiliation. Nobler, I thought, to die a man than live on, a sex monster. It was a wise old queen—Bobo, we called her—who taught me that I had a duty to live and bear my burden proudly for all to see, to conquer prejudice and ignorance and hate with knowledge and sincerity and love.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“No one is ever really alone. You are part of everything alive.’ The difficulty is to convince someone else he is really part of you, so what the hell?”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“In the dark theater Lee could feel his body pull toward Allerton, an amoeboid protoplasmic projection, straining with a blind worm hunger to enter the other’s body, to breathe with his lungs, see with his eyes, learn the feel of his viscera and genitals. Allerton shifted in his seat. Lee felt a sharp twinge, a strain or dislocation of the spirit.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“Lee finished his third drink and turned to Allerton. “I figure to go down to South America soon,” he said. “Why don’t you come along? Won’t cost you a cent.” “Perhaps not in money.” “I’m not a difficult man to get along with,” said Lee. “We could reach a satisfactory arrangement. What you got to lose?” “Independence.” “So who’s going to cut in on your independence? You can lay all the women in South America if you want to. All I ask is be nice to Papa, say twice a week.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“I had a duty to live and to bear my burden proudly for all to see, to conquer prejudice and ignorance and hate with knowledge and sincerity and love. Whenever you are threatened by a hostile presence, you emit a thick cloud of love like an octopus squirts out ink.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“When Allerton was asleep, he rolled over and threw his knee across Lee's body. Lee lay still so Allerton wouldn't wake up and move away.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“Lee did not enjoy frustration. The limitations of his desires were like the bars of a cage, like a chain and collar, something that he had learned as an animal learns, through days and years of experiencing the snub of the chain, the unyielding bars. He had never resigned himself, and his eyes looked out through invisible bars, watchful, alert, waiting for the keeper to forget the door, for the frayed collar, the loosened bar...suffering without despair and without consent.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“Lola’s was not exactly a bar. It was a small beer-and-soda joint. There was a Coca-Cola box full of beer and soda and ice at the left of the door as you came in. A counter with tube-metal stools covered in yellow glazed leather ran down one side of the room as far as the jukebox. Tables were lined along the wall opposite the counter. The stools had long since lost the rubber caps for the legs and made horrible screeching noises when the maid pushed them around to sweep. There was a kitchen in back, where a slovenly cook fried everything in rancid fat. There was neither past nor future in Lola’s. The place was a waiting room, where certain people checked in at certain times.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“Lee's affection irritated him. Like many people who have nothing to do, he was very resentful of any claims on his time. He had no close friends. He disliked definite appointments. He did not like to feel that anybody expected anything from him. He wanted, so far as possible, to live without external pressure.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“Lee felt a charge of anger pass through his body. 'I'll make him pay for this somehow,' he thought. [...] Lee did not actually want retaliation. He felt a desperate need to maintain some special contact with Allerton.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“Lee's muscles ached from the long walk. He was very tired. He put one arm across Allerton's chest, and snuggled close to the boy's body. A feeling of deep tenderness flowed out from Lee's body at the warm contact. He snuggled closer and stroked Allerton's shoulder gently. Allerton moved irritably, pushing Lee's arm away.
'Slack off, will you, and go to sleep,' said Allerton. He turned on his side, with his back to Lee.
Lee drew his arm back. His whole body contracted with the shock. Slowly he put his hand under his cheek. He felt a deep hurt, as though he were bleeding inside. Tears ran down his face.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“An oil lamp lit a woman's body. Lee could feel desire for the woman through the other's body. 'I'm not queer,' he thought. 'I'm disembodied”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“Nadie está verdaderamente solo. Tú eres parte de todo lo vivo." Lo difícil es convencer a alguien de que realmente forma parte de ti.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“En la tristeza profunda no hay lugar para el sentimentalismo. Es algo tan inapelable como las montañas: un hecho. Una vez que uno lo comprende, no puede quejarse.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“Šta se dešava kada ne postoje nikakve granice?”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“В неговото търсене на подходящ сексуален обект има нещо любопитно систематично и асексуално - той методично задрасква нови и нови кандидати от един списък, който от самото начало изглежда съставен с мисълта за провал. На някакво много дълбоко ниво самият той не иска да успее, но е готов да положи всички усилия, за да избегне признанието, че всъщност не търси сексуален контакт.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“Moor was a thin young man with blond hair that was habitually somewhat long. He had pale blue eyes and very white skin. There were dark patches under his eyes and two deep lines around the mouth. He looked like a child, and at the same time like a prematurely aged man. His face showed the ravages of the death process, the inroads of decay in flesh cut off from the living charge of contact. Moor was motivated, literally kept alive and moving, by hate, but there was no passion or violence in his hate. Moor's hate was a slow, steady push, weak but infinitely persistent, waiting to take advantage of any weakness in another. The slow drip of Moor's hate had etched the lines of decay in his face. He had aged without experience of life, like a piece of meat rotting on a pantry shelf.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“A diferença, claro, é simples: com o junk, Lee está encoberto, protegido e também sob severa limitação. O junk não apenas curto-circuita a energia sexual como, dependendo da dose, oblitera as reações emocionais quase a ponto de fazê-las desaparecer. Olhando agora para a ação em Queer, aquele mês alucinado de lancinante abstinência assume um halo infernal e ameaçador, o mal exalando de bares iluminados por neon, da violência repulsiva, a pistola 45 logo ali sob a superfície. Com o junk, eu ficava isolado, não bebia, não saía muito, vivia do pico e da espera pelo próximo pico.
Quando essa proteção é removida, tudo aquilo que era mantido sob controle pelo junk vem à tona. O viciado em abstinência fica sujeito aos excessos emocionais de uma criança ou de um adolescente, qualquer que seja sua idade real. E a energia sexual volta com toda a força. Homens de sessenta anos têm poluções noturnas e orgasmos espontâneos (uma experiência extremamente desagradável, agaçant, como dizem os franceses, desconfortável mesmo). Os leitores precisam ter isso em mente, caso contrário a metamorfose na personalidade de Lee parecerá inexplicável ou psicótica. Também é preciso levar em conta que a síndrome de abstinência não dura para sempre, em geral não dura mais que um mês. E Lee passa por uma fase na qual bebe em excesso, o que exacerba todos os piores e mais perigosos aspectos da fissura e da abstinência, tornando seu comportamento afoito, inconveniente, afrontoso, piegas — numa palavra, aterrador.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“In the dark theater Lee could feel his body pull toward Allerton, an amoeboid protoplasmic projection, straining with a blind worm hunger to enter the other's body, to breathe with his lungs, see with his eyes, learn the feel of his viscera and genitals.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer

“Quando Lee tomou posição para saudar o outro com seu cumprimento de um mundo antigo e digno, o que transpareceu no olhar malicioso foi o alvoroço nu do desejo, distorcido pela dor e pelo ódio de seu corpo carente, e, em simultânea e dupla exposição, um meigo sorriso infantil de apreciação e confiança, perturbadoramente fora de hora e lugar, mutilado e desesperado.
Allerton ficou estarrecido. “Talvez seja uma espécie de tique que ele tem”, pensou. Resolveu se livrar do contato com Lee antes que o sujeito fizesse alguma coisa ainda mais desagradável. O resultado foi o de uma ruptura. Allerton não se comportou de forma hostil ou fria; no que lhe dizia respeito, Lee simplesmente não estava lá. Lee o encarou por um momento, agoniado, depois se voltou outra vez para o balcão, derrotado e abalado.”
― William S. Burroughs, Queer