Queer William Burroughs Quotes

In deep sadness there is no place for sentimentality. It is as final as the mountains: a fact. There it is. When you realize it you cannot complain.

Like many people who have nothing to do, he was very resentful of any claims on his time.

Death was in every cell of his body. He gave off a faint, greenish steam of decay. Lee imagined he would glow in the dark.

Sit down on your ass, or what's left of it after four years in the navy.

The rudeness of many Americans depressed him, a rudeness based on a solid ignorance of the whole concept of manners, and on the proposition that for social purposes, all people are more or less equal and interchangeable.

Anything that can be accomplished chemically can be accomplished in other ways.

Lee watched the thin hands, the beautiful violet eyes, the flush of excitement on the boy's face. An imaginary hand projected with such force it seemed Allerton must feel the touch of ectoplasmic fingers caressing his ear, phantom thumbs smoothing his eyebrows, pushing the hair back from his face. Now Lee's hands were running down his ribs, the stomach. Lee felt the aching pain of desire in his lungs.

How did we all get here? Spot of trouble in our old countries.

A curse. Been in our family for generations. The Lees have always been perverts. I shall never forget the unspeakable horror that froze the lymph in my glands when the baneful word seared my reeling brain—I was a homosexual. I thought of the painted simpering female impersonators I'd seen in a Baltimore nightclub. Could it be possible I was one of those subhuman things? I walked the streets in a daze like a man with a light concussion. I would've destroyed myself. And a wise old queen—Bobo, we called her—taught me that I had a duty to live and bear my burden proudly for all to see. Poor Bobo came to a sticky end - he was riding in the Duke Devanche's Hispano Suissa when his falling hemorrhoids blew out of the car and wrapped around the rear wheel. He was completely gutted leaving an empty shell sitting there on the giraffe skin upholstry. Even the eyes and the brain went with a horrible "shlupping" sound. The Duke says he would carry that ghastly "shlup" with him to his mausoleum.

He felt a killing hate for the stupid, ordinary, disapproving people who kept him from doing what he wanted to do. "Someday I am going to have things just like I want," he said to himself. "And if any moralizing son of a bitch gives me any static, they will fish him out of the river.

After Bill got his shot, a little color crept into his face and he would become almost coy. It was a gruesome sight. I remember once he told me how he'd been propositioned by a queer who offered him twenty dollars. Bill declined, saying "I don't think you would be very well satisfied." Bill twitched his fleshless hips. "You should see me in the nude," he said. "I'm really cute.

No one is ever really alone. You are part of everything alive.’ The difficulty is to convince someone else he is really part of you, so what the hell?

For John Dillinger In hope he is still alive Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1986 In hope he is still alive Thanks for the wild turkey and the Passenger Pigeons, destined to be shit out through wholesome American guts; thanks for a Continent to despoil and poison; thanks for Indians to provide a modicum of challenge and danger; thanks for vast herds of bison to kill and skin, leaving the carcass to rot; thanks for bounties on wolves and coyotes; thanks for the American Dream to vulgarize and falsify until the bare lies shine through; thanks for the KKK; for nigger-killing lawmen feeling their notches; for decent church-going women with their mean, pinched, bitter, evil faces; thanks for Kill a Queer for Christ stickers; thanks for laboratory AIDS; thanks for Prohibition and the War Against Drugs; thanks for a country where nobody is allowed to mind his own business; thanks for a nation of finks—yes, thanks for all the memories all right, lets see your arms; you always were a headache and you always were a bore; thanks for the last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams.

As I was walking past Tony Pastor's I saw Pat, the lesbian bouncer, throw a drunken young sailor out into the street. The sailor said, "That place is full of fucking queers." He swung at the air and nearly fell on his face, then he staggered away, muttering to himself.

The name is Clem Williamson Snide. I am a private asshole.

Ever notice how many expressions carry over from queers to con men? Like 'raise,' letting someone know you are in the same line?

When Allerton was asleep, he rolled over and threw his knee across Lee's body. Lee lay still so Allerton wouldn't wake up and move away.

In the dark theater Lee could feel his body pull toward Allerton, an amoeboid protoplasmic projection, straining with a blind worm hunger to enter the other’s body, to breathe with his lungs, see with his eyes, learn the feel of his viscera and genitals. Allerton shifted in his seat. Lee felt a sharp twinge, a strain or dislocation of the spirit.

A room full of fags gives me the horrors. They jerk around like puppets on invisible strings, galvanized into hideous activity that is the negation of everything living and spontaneous. The live human being has moved out of these bodies long ago. But something moved in when the original tenant moved out.

I had a duty to live and to bear my burden proudly for all to see, to conquer prejudice and ignorance and hate with knowledge and sincerity and love. Whenever you are threatened by a hostile presence, you emit a thick cloud of love like an octopus squirts out ink.

Šta se dešava kada ne postoje nikakve granice?

En la tristeza profunda no hay lugar para el sentimentalismo. Es algo tan inapelable como las montañas: un hecho. Una vez que uno lo comprende, no puede quejarse.

Nadie está verdaderamente solo. Tú eres parte de todo lo vivo." Lo difícil es convencer a alguien de que realmente forma parte de ti.

An oil lamp lit a woman's body. Lee could feel desire for the woman through the other's body. 'I'm not queer,' he thought. 'I'm disembodied

In my early teens, I heard about Naked Lunch and its mutating typewriters and talking cockroaches. While I would hardly classify its dystopic vision as erotica now, at the time, Naked Lunch was my first foray into consuming smut. It was because of Burroughs that I knew about the particular musk that blooms when a rectum is penetrated, and that death-by-hanging produces spontaneous trouser tents. The first Burroughs I read was Naked Lunch, but I buried myself in a few of his stories, and thus the arc of my recollection is just as non-linear as his narrative.

Lee felt a charge of anger pass through his body. 'I'll make him pay for this somehow,' he thought. [...] Lee did not actually want retaliation. He felt a desperate need to maintain some special contact with Allerton.

Lee finished his third drink and turned to Allerton. “I figure to go down to South America soon,” he said. “Why don’t you come along? Won’t cost you a cent.” “Perhaps not in money.” “I’m not a difficult man to get along with,” said Lee. “We could reach a satisfactory arrangement. What you got to lose?” “Independence.” “So who’s going to cut in on your independence? You can lay all the women in South America if you want to. All I ask is be nice to Papa, say twice a week.

Lee's affection irritated him. Like many people who have nothing to do, he was very resentful of any claims on his time. He had no close friends. He disliked definite appointments. He did not like to feel that anybody expected anything from him. He wanted, so far as possible, to live without external pressure.

Lee did not enjoy frustration. The limitations of his desires were like the bars of a cage, like a chain and collar, something that he had learned as an animal learns, through days and years of experiencing the snub of the chain, the unyielding bars. He had never resigned himself, and his eyes looked out through invisible bars, watchful, alert, waiting for the keeper to forget the door, for the frayed collar, the loosened bar...suffering without despair and without consent.

The dichotomy of the gun-toting, substance-abusing queer seeking spiritual refuge might strike some as anticlimactic. But William Burroughs was not what he appeared to be to many of his fans. The work which so many revere as biblical texts in the church of addiction were always seen by the writer himself as cautionary rather than visionary.

Alerton je bio nervozan i razdražljiv. Lupkao je po stolu i gledao naokolo. Ni on sam nije znao zašto ga Li nervira.

Ti znaš da volim da spavam sam. — Da, znam. Šteta. Da se ja pitam, mi bismo svake noći spavali obavijeni jedan oko drugog, poput čegrtuša u zimskom snu.

Alerton? Video sam ga pre oko mesec dana na drugoj strani ulice.

«No soy marica — pensó—. Soy incorpóreo».

Hay, por cierto, algo obsceno y siniestro en la fotografía, un deseo de aprisionar, de incorporar, una persecución de intensidad sexual.

Ahora que podía pasar los días y las noches con el objeto de sus atenciones, Lee se sentía liberado de los lacerantes vacíos y miedos.

Sentía una desesperada necesidad de mantener algún contacto especial con Allerton.

A curse. Been in our family for generations. The Lees have always been perverts. I shall never forget the unspeakable horror that froze the lymph in my glands—the lymph glands that is, of course—when the baneful word seared my reeling brain: I was a homosexual. I thought of the painted, simpering female impersonators I'd seen in a Baltimore nightclub. Could it be possible I was one of those subhuman things? I walked the streets in a daze like a man with a light concussion—just a minute, Doctor Kildare, this isn't your script. I might well destroyed myself, ending an existence which seemed to offer nothing but grotesque misery and humiliation. Nobler, I thought, to die a man than live on, a sex monster. It was a wise old queen—Bobo, we called her—who taught me that I had a duty to live and bear my burden proudly for all to see, to conquer prejudice and ignorance and hate with knowledge and sincerity and love.

В неговото търсене на подходящ сексуален обект има нещо любопитно систематично и асексуално - той методично задрасква нови и нови кандидати от един списък, който от самото начало изглежда съставен с мисълта за провал. На някакво много дълбоко ниво самият той не иска да успее, но е готов да положи всички усилия, за да избегне признанието, че всъщност не търси сексуален контакт.

Lola’s was not exactly a bar. It was a small beer-and-soda joint. There was a Coca-Cola box full of beer and soda and ice at the left of the door as you came in. A counter with tube-metal stools covered in yellow glazed leather ran down one side of the room as far as the jukebox. Tables were lined along the wall opposite the counter. The stools had long since lost the rubber caps for the legs and made horrible screeching noises when the maid pushed them around to sweep. There was a kitchen in back, where a slovenly cook fried everything in rancid fat. There was neither past nor future in Lola’s. The place was a waiting room, where certain people checked in at certain times.

An imaginary hand projected with such force it seemed Allerton must feel the touch of ectoplasmic fingers caressing his ear, phantom thumbs smoothing his eyebrows, pushing the hair back from his face ... Lee felt the aching pain of desire in his lungs.

Mi pasado fue un río envenenado del que uno tuvo la fortuna de escaparse y por el que uno se siente inmediatamente amenazado, años después de los hechos relatados. Doloroso hasta el punto en que leerlo me resulta difícil, y no digamos escribir sobre él.

In the dark theater Lee could feel his body pull toward Allerton, an amoeboid protoplasmic projection, straining with a blind worm hunger to enter the other's body, to breathe with his lungs, see with his eyes, learn the feel of his viscera and genitals.

Lee's muscles ached from the long walk. He was very tired. He put one arm across Allerton's chest, and snuggled close to the boy's body. A feeling of deep tenderness flowed out from Lee's body at the warm contact. He snuggled closer and stroked Allerton's shoulder gently. Allerton moved irritably, pushing Lee's arm away. 'Slack off, will you, and go to sleep,' said Allerton. He turned on his side, with his back to Lee. Lee drew his arm back. His whole body contracted with the shock. Slowly he put his hand under his cheek. He felt a deep hurt, as though he were bleeding inside. Tears ran down his face.

No momento em que se escreve algo, ele perde o poder de surpreender, exatamente como um vírus que se vê em desvantagem quando, enfraquecido, tiver proporcionado o surgimento de anticorpos alertas. Assim, botando a experiência no papel, eu adquiria alguma imunidade contra outras perigosas empreitadas do tipo.

A man lives in a little house. A stranger asks him how to find the road for Ayahuasca. "Ah, this way, señor." He is leading the man around and around: "The road is right here." Suddenly he realizes he hasn't any idea where the road is, and why should he be bothered? So he picks up a rock and kills his tormentor.

Otputovali su autobusom nekoliko dana kasnije, a kada su stigli u Panama Siti, Alerton je već počeo da se žali kako je Li previše zahtevan u svojim prohtevima. Inače, veoma dobro su se slagali. Sada, kada je Li mogao da provodi dane i noći s predmetom svoje pažnje, on je odahnuo od osećanja stalne praznine i straha.

»Entonces supe lo que era la soledad. Pero las palabras de Bobo me llegaban desde la tumba, con un dulce chisporroteo sibilante. “Nadie está verdaderamente solo. Tú eres parte de todo lo vivo.” Lo difícil es convencer a alguien de que realmente forma parte de ti. ¿Y entonces? Las partes tendríamos que colaborar. ¿Me entiendes?

Taj grad, kao i čitav Ekvador, ostavljao je čudnovato zbunjujući utisak. Li je osetio da se tu ipak nešto događa, osetio je neku životnu struju koja je skrivena od njega. To je bila postojbina drevne chimu grnčarije, gde su slanici i bokali za vodu predstavljali bezimene opscenosti: dvojica muškaraca na sve četiri zaneti sodomijom predstavljali su ručku na vrhu jednog kuhinjskog lonca.

U stvari, Murovo otkačinjenje Lija bilo je smišljeno da mu, u tom trenutku, nanese maksimum bola. Ono je stavilo Lija u položaj prezira dostojnog, upornog, queer lika, previše glupog i previše nesenzibilnog da shvati da njegova pažnja nije poželjna, što je nateralo Mura na neukusan ali neizbežan čin crtanja skice broda. Li je nekoliko minuta stajao naslonjen na uličnu banderu. Taj šok ga je otreznio, isisao svu tu pijanstvom izazvanu euforiju iz njega.

„Jesi li raspoložen da večeramo zajedno?” pitao je Li. „Ne. Mislim da ću večeras da radim”, rekao je Alerton. Li je bio potišten i potresen. Toplina i smeh subotnje noći su nestali, a on nije znao zašto. Bilo da se radilo o ljubavnoj ili prijateljskoj vezi, Li je uvek pokušavao da uspostavi kontakt na neverbalnom nivou intuicije, nemu razmenu misli i osećanja. Alerton je naglo prekinuo kontakt, i Li je osetio fizički bol, kao da je neki deo njega koji se nesigurno protegnuo ka Alertonu odsečen

Mur je počeo da priča o svojoj ženi: „U početku, Bile, ona je bila toliko zavisna od mene da ju je bukvalno hvatala histerija kada sam morao da odem u muzej na posao. Uspeo sam da izgradim njen ego do tačke u kojoj joj više nisam bio potreban, i posle toga mi je jedino preostalo da odem. Više ništa nisam mogao da uradim za nju.” (..) „I on stvarno veruje u to”, pomislio je Li. „Baš kao i u ono sranje o izgradnji ega svoje žene. On ume da uživa u zadovoljstvima otrovne malicioznosti, i da istovremeno vidi sebe kao sveca. Pravi podvig.

Moor was a thin young man with blond hair that was habitually somewhat long. He had pale blue eyes and very white skin. There were dark patches under his eyes and two deep lines around the mouth. He looked like a child, and at the same time like a prematurely aged man. His face showed the ravages of the death process, the inroads of decay in flesh cut off from the living charge of contact. Moor was motivated, literally kept alive and moving, by hate, but there was no passion or violence in his hate. Moor's hate was a slow, steady push, weak but infinitely persistent, waiting to take advantage of any weakness in another. The slow drip of Moor's hate had etched the lines of decay in his face. He had aged without experience of life, like a piece of meat rotting on a pantry shelf.

Quando Lee tomou posição para saudar o outro com seu cumprimento de um mundo antigo e digno, o que transpareceu no olhar malicioso foi o alvoroço nu do desejo, distorcido pela dor e pelo ódio de seu corpo carente, e, em simultânea e dupla exposição, um meigo sorriso infantil de apreciação e confiança, perturbadoramente fora de hora e lugar, mutilado e desesperado. Allerton ficou estarrecido. “Talvez seja uma espécie de tique que ele tem”, pensou. Resolveu se livrar do contato com Lee antes que o sujeito fizesse alguma coisa ainda mais desagradável. O resultado foi o de uma ruptura. Allerton não se comportou de forma hostil ou fria; no que lhe dizia respeito, Lee simplesmente não estava lá. Lee o encarou por um momento, agoniado, depois se voltou outra vez para o balcão, derrotado e abalado.

Train to Canada ah that is Gibson Girl Elinor Glyn. Rush for seat of course like a refugee train those are reserved seats pulled him down... so what now Joan talking about Neal's work can be placed Joan is dead long live the queen strip polka ... strip poker ... play it skit hell group we said it ... so the game with him and one other... is it not so as to see it like ... If all enzyme have images like all junkies look alike that is because of the special addict enzyme ... All schizos look alike... All queers look alike... and all criminals and all Lesbians Lesbians all have that cold fish look ... So these archetypes all have the corresponding enzyme system ... Withdraw the enzyme, you starve out the archetype ... The new look will blend all the archetypes into a spontaneous matrix... The new look will not be dominated by any one enzyme, will be the uninvaded look not of innocence but of knowledge.

Este é um país pequeno, instável, subdesenvolvido. A configuração econômica é classicamente simples e bem do jeito que eu imaginava: matéria-prima, madeira, comida, mão de obra, aluguel, tudo muito barato. E todos os bens manufaturados muito caros, por causa do imposto de importação. As tarifas supostamente protegeriam a indústria equatoriana. Não existe indústria equatoriana. Não há produção nenhuma aqui. As pessoas que poderiam produzir não produzem, porque não querem empatar o seu dinheiro aqui. Querem é estar prontinhas pra cair fora agora mesmo, com um calhamaço de dinheiro vivo, de preferência dólares americanos. Estão alarmadas sem motivo. Gente rica em geral é assustada. Não sei por quê. Algo a ver com complexo de culpa, imagino. ¿Quién sabe? Não vim psicanalisar César, mas proteger ele. A certo preço, claro. O que eles precisam aqui é de um departamento de segurança, pra manter os oprimidos bem oprimidos.

Alerton je mogao satima da sedi, ne radeći apsolutno ništa. Li je seo i pokušao da probudi Alertonovo interesovanje, ali je bio isuviše pijan da bi to što je govorio imalo smisla. Njegov pokušaj da vodi opušten, duhovit razgovor bio je bolan za gledanje. Ušao je u jedan kineski restoran, seo u separe i naručio koka-kolu. Dok je tu, ničim neometan sedeo, bol mu se proširio po čitavom telu. „Šta se dogodilo?” upitao se. Onda je naterao sebe da razmotri činjenice. Alerton nije bio dovoljno queer da bi omogućio opstanak recipročne veze. Lijeva naklonost ga je iritirala. Kao i veliki broj ljudi koji nemaju ništa da rade, mrzeo je bilo čiji pokušaj polaganja prava na njegovo vreme. Nije imao bliskih prijatelja. Nije voleo čvrste dogovore. Nije voleo da bilo ko očekuje bilo šta od njega. Li je otkrio da može da se našteluje na Alertonov način razmišljanja, iako mu taj proces nanosi bol, jer obuhvata i sagledavanje razmera Alertonove ravnodušnosti.

Kada je Li stao pored Alertona, da bi se naklonio i uputio svoj dostojanstveni staromodni pozdrav, na njegovom licu, iskrivljenom od bola i mržnje, pojavio se kez neskrivene pohote njegovog uskraćenog bića i, u istovremenoj duploj ekspoziciji, mio detinji osmeh simpatije i poverenja, šokantno neprikladan i za taj trenutak i za to mesto, osakaćen i beznadežan. Alerton je bio šokiran. „Možda ima neki tik”, pomislio je. Odlučio je da prekine svaki kontakt s Lijem pre nego što taj čovek uradi nešto još neukusnije. Rezultat toga je bio nalik prekinutom telefonskom razgovoru. Alerton nije bio ni hladan ni neprijateljski nastrojen. Što se njega ticalo, Li jednostavno nije bio prisutan. Li ga je na trenutak bespomoćno pogledao, a onda se ponovo okrenuo ka šanku, poražen i potresen. Nema ničeg neuobičajenog u tome da razgovaraš sa nekim koga ne poznaješ, ali je Li naveo Alertona da zauzme odbrambeni stav. Taj čovek mu je delovao nekako poznato. Kada je Li govorio, činilo se da pod tim što kaže misli mnogo više. Poseban naglasak na nekoj reči ili na nekom pozdravu aludirao je na period dobrog poznavanja stvari u nekom drugom vremenu i na nekom drugom mestu. Li je zvučao kao da kaže: „Vi znate na šta mislim. Vi se sećate.

A diferença, claro, é simples: com o junk, Lee está encoberto, protegido e também sob severa limitação. O junk não apenas curto-circuita a energia sexual como, dependendo da dose, oblitera as reações emocionais quase a ponto de fazê-las desaparecer. Olhando agora para a ação em Queer, aquele mês alucinado de lancinante abstinência assume um halo infernal e ameaçador, o mal exalando de bares iluminados por neon, da violência repulsiva, a pistola 45 logo ali sob a superfície. Com o junk, eu ficava isolado, não bebia, não saía muito, vivia do pico e da espera pelo próximo pico. Quando essa proteção é removida, tudo aquilo que era mantido sob controle pelo junk vem à tona. O viciado em abstinência fica sujeito aos excessos emocionais de uma criança ou de um adolescente, qualquer que seja sua idade real. E a energia sexual volta com toda a força. Homens de sessenta anos têm poluções noturnas e orgasmos espontâneos (uma experiência extremamente desagradável, agaçant, como dizem os franceses, desconfortável mesmo). Os leitores precisam ter isso em mente, caso contrário a metamorfose na personalidade de Lee parecerá inexplicável ou psicótica. Também é preciso levar em conta que a síndrome de abstinência não dura para sempre, em geral não dura mais que um mês. E Lee passa por uma fase na qual bebe em excesso, o que exacerba todos os piores e mais perigosos aspectos da fissura e da abstinência, tornando seu comportamento afoito, inconveniente, afrontoso, piegas — numa palavra, aterrador.

The Westerner thinks there is some secret he can discover. The East says, 'How the fuck should I know?