Ginsberg: Do you want to be loved?
Burroughs: Nnnnnnot really. It depends by who or what. By my cats, certainly.
(From William S. Burroughs: A Man Within, date unknown)
Pistol Poem No. 2
William Burroughs
(via fuckyeahbeatgeneration)
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 Burroughs
(Source: fuckyeahbeatgeneration)
In deep sadness there is no place for sentimentality.
— William Burroughs
(Source: fuckyeahbeatgeneration)
Tips for Young People by William Burroughs
People often ask me if I have any words of advice for young people.
Well here are a few simple admonitions for young and old.
Never intefere in a boy-and-girl fight.
Beware of whores who say they don’t want money.
The hell they don’t.
What they mean is they want more money. Much more.
If you’re doing business with a religious son-of-a-bitch,
Get it in writing.
His word isn’t worth shit.
Not with the good lord telling him how to fuck you on the deal.
Avoid fuck-ups.
We all know the type.
Anything they have anything to do with,
No matter how good it sounds,
Turns into a disaster.
Do not offer sympathy to the mentally ill.
Tell them firmly:
I am not paid to listen to this drivel.
You are a terminal boob.
Now some of you may encounter the Devil’s Bargain,
If you get that far.
Any old soul is worth saving,
At least to a priest,
But not every soul is worth buying.
So you can take the offer as a compliment.
He tries the easy ones first.
You know like money,
All the money there is.
But who wants to be the richest guy in some cemetary?
Money won’t buy.
Not much left to spend it on, eh gramps?
Getting too old to cut the mustard.
Well time hits the hardest blows.
Especially below the belt.
How’s a young body grab you?
Like three card monte, like pea under the shell,
Now you see it, now you don’t.
Haven’t you forgotten something, gramps?
In order to feel something,
You’ve got to be there.
You have to be eighteen.
You’re not eighteen.
You are seventy-eight.
Old fool sold his soul for a strap-on.
Well they always try the easiest ones first.
How about an honorable bargain?
You always wanted to be a doctor,
Well now’s your chance.
Why don’t you become a great healer
And benefit humanity?
What’s wrong with that?
Just about everything.
Just about everything.
There are no honorable bargains
Involving exchange
Of qualitative merchandise
Like souls
For quantitative merchandise
Like time and money.
So piss off Satan
And don’t take me for dumber than I look.
An old junk pusher told me -
Watch whose money you pick up.
(Source: fuckyeahbeatgeneration)
In Cold Blood - William Burroughs Curse on Truman Capote →
Capote’s increasing success occurred during a period in which Kerouac and Burroughs experienced frustration in following their own respective debut novels, The Town and the City (1950) and Junkie (1953). Hence it is understandable that, as his fame grew, Capote became a figure of intermittent ridicule for the struggling writers.
(Source: fuckyeahbeatgeneration)
(Source: televandalist)
I wanted to meet what there was here to meet. But they seem to have scented my being different and excluded me, just all squares instinctively do. And these people, Bowles, Tennessee Williams, Capote, are just as square as the St. Louis Country Club set I was raised with, and they sensed I was different and never accepted me as one of them.
— William Burroughs to Jack Kerouac, 1949
(Source: fuckyeahbeatgeneration, via journalofanobody)
© Jon Blumb, 1992, William S. Burroughs
Recording session for a music video (Ministry - Just One Fix) / (source: SpencerArt)
(Source: burnedshoes)
