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America is not a young land: it is old and dirty and evil before the settlers, before the Indians. The evil is there waiting.

— William S. Burroughs Naked Lunch (1959)

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More quotes by William S. Burroughs

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)

All William S. Burroughs quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: William S. Burroughs (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.