More Quotes by William S. Burroughs
NOTHING happens by coincidence.
In the magical universe there are no coincidences and there are no accidents. Nothing happens unless someone wills it to happen. The dogma of science is that the will cannot possibly affect external forces, and I think that’s just ridiculous. It’s as bad as the church. My viewpoint is the exact contrary of the scientific viewpoint. I believe that if you run into somebody in the street it’s for a reason.
After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say 'I want to see the manager.
The best way to keep something bad from happening is to see it ahead of time... and you can't see it if you refuse to face the possibility.
There is no intensity of love or feeling that does not involve the risk of crippling hurt. It is a duty to take this risk, to love and feel without defense or reserve.
It is to be remembered that all art is magical in origin - music, sculpture, writing, painting - and by magical I mean intended to produce very definite results. Paintings were originally formulae to make what is painted happen. Art is not an end in itself, any more than Einstein's matter-into-energy formulae is an end in itself. Like all formulae, art was originally FUNCTIONAL, intended to make things happen, the way an atom bomb happens from Einstein's formulae.
No one is ever really alone. You are part of everything alive.
Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape.
Life is a vacation from two eternities, who wants to waste those precious years worrying about what happens when you get back to forever?
There are no innocent bystanders ... what are they doing there in the first place?
