85 quotes
America is not a young land: it is old and dirty and evil before the settlers, before the Indians. The evil is there waiting.
Naked Lunch (1959)
A paranoid man is a man who knows a little about what's going on.
Friends magazine (1970)
Junk is surrounded by magic and taboos, curses and amulets.
Naked Lunch (1959)
If the right to mind one's own business is recognized, the whole shit disposition is untenable and Hell hath no vociferous fury than an endangered parasite.
The Place Of Dead Roads (1983)
A functioning police state needs no police.
Naked Lunch (1959)
Cheat your landlord if you can and must, but do not try to shortchange the Muse. It cannot be done. You can't fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal.
The Western Lands (1987)
This is a war universe. War all the time. That is its nature. There may be other universes based on all sorts of other principles, but ours seems to be based on war and games.
Like many people who have nothing to do, he was very resentful of any claims on his time.
Queer: A Novel (1985)
Did I ever tell you about the man who taught his asshole to talk?
Naked Lunch (1959)
Hustlers of the world, there is one Mark you cannot beat: The Mark Inside.
Naked Lunch (1959)
Communication must become total and conscious before we can stop it.
The Ticket That Exploded (1962)
Our national drug is alcohol. We tend to regard the use of any other drug with special horror.
Naked Lunch (1959)
Modern man has lost the option of silence.
The Ticket That Exploded (1962)
Junk takes everything and gives nothing but insurance against junk sickness.
Junkie (1953)
There is simply no room left for 'freedom from the tyranny of government' since city dwellers depend on it for food, power, water, transportation, protection, and welfare.
Cities of the Red Night (1981)
The junk merchant doesn't sell his product to the consumer, he sells the consumer to his product. He does not improve and simplify his merchandise. He degrades and simplifies the client.
The mark of a basic shit is that he has to be right.
The Place Of Dead Roads (1983)
Only a miracle or a disaster could restore it.
Cities of the Red Night (1981)
Faced by the actual practice of freedom, the French and American revolutions would be forced to stand by their words.
Cities of the Red Night (1981)
No job too dirty for a fucking scientist.
The Western Lands (1987)