More Quotes by William S. Burroughs
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.
in the magical universe there are no coincidences and there are no accidents. nothing happens unless someone wills it to happen
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.
Whether you like it or not, you are committed to the human endeavor. I cannot ally myself with such a purely negative goal as avoidance of suffering. Suffering is a chance you take by the fact of being alive.
Every word is autobiographical, and every word is fiction.
You were given the power to love in order to use it, no matter what pain it may cause you.
Life is a vacation from two eternities, who wants to waste those precious years worrying about what happens when you get back to forever?
Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.
Do not proffer sympathy to the mentally ill; it is a bottomless pit. Tell them firmly, "I am not paid to listen to this drivel - you are a terminal fool!" Otherwise, they make you as crazy as they are.
NOTHING happens by coincidence.
