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With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker QUOTES

With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker QUOTES

1 " Nobody's busting into YOUR apartment at three in the morning, are they? Well, then don't worry about what they're doing in South Korea and places like that. It's like the standard of living. Are you content to achieve your higher standard of living at the expense of people all over the world who've got a lower standard of living? Most Americans would say yes. Now we ask the question, are you content to enjoy your political freedom at the expense of people who are less free? I think they would also say yes. "

― William S. Burroughs , With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker

2 " If you are asking me what the individual can do right now, in a political sense, I'd have to say he can't do all that much. Speaking for myself, I am more concerned with the transformation of the individual, which to me is much more important than the so-called political revolution. "

― William S. Burroughs , With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker

3 " To my way of thinking the function of the poet is to make us aware of what we know and don't know we know. "

― William S. Burroughs , With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker

4 " The simplest questions are the most difficult. "

― William S. Burroughs , With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker

5 " I don't know what falling in love for me is. The concept of romantic love arose in the Middle Ages. Now remember, the Arabs don't even have a word for love—that is, a word for love apart from physical attraction or sex. And this separation of love and sex is a western concept, a Christian concept. As to what falling in love means, I'm uncertain. Love, well, it means simply physical attraction and liking a person at the same time. "

― William S. Burroughs , With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker

6 " My greatest strength is to have a great capacity to confront myself no matter how unpleasant. My greatest weakness is that I don't. I know that's enigmatic, but that's sort of a general formula for anyone, actually. "

― William S. Burroughs , With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker

7 " If you weren't surprised by your life you wouldn't be alive. Life is surprise. "

― William S. Burroughs , With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker

8 " Most people don't notice what's going on around them. That's my principal message to writers: for God's sake, keep your eyes open. "

― William S. Burroughs , With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker

9 " There is nothing one fears more or is more ashamed of than not being oneself. Yet few people realize even an approximation of their true potential. Most people must live with varying degrees of the shame and fear of not being fully in control of themselves. "

― William S. Burroughs , With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker

10 " I do spend a great deal of time alone. I'm not very gregarious. I don't like parties and miscellaneous gatherings with no particular purpose. I think parties are largely a mistake. The bigger they are the more mistaken they are. "

― William S. Burroughs , With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker

11 " We're very near a certain point where money doesn't mean anything... They say: How much money is this going to cost? This is really a totally meaningless concept. Money determines less and less our reality. Money is not constant factor, it's simply a process dependent entirely on acceptance for its existence. We already see situations without money, and I think that we're coming closer and closer to it. "

― William S. Burroughs , With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker

12 " What are Americans? We've got everything from sharecroppers to atomic physicist here, and there's certainly no uniformity in their thought processes. There's very little they have in common. In fact, Americans should we say, have less in common than any other nationality. "

― William S. Burroughs , With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker

13 " Whatever happened to God's justice? I am convinced that God exist and God is one asshole. "

― William S. Burroughs , With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker

14 " Do you realize how narrowly a fascist takeover in this country was headed off by Watergate? They all said as much quite frankly in all their boring memoirs. It is extremely important to keep track of these things, and remember. "

― William S. Burroughs , With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker