Romantics consider common sense vulgar.

Pain narrows consciousness; pleasure blurs it.

When Medusa looks in the mirror, she sees the Lady of Sorrows.

My passions have never jumped out of the fireplace and set fire to the carpet.

Retirement requires the invention of a new hedonism, not a return to the hedonism of youth

The sewing machine joins what the scissors have cut asunder, plus whatever else comes in its path.

Clothes make a statement. Costumes tell a story.

The laughter of the aphorism is sometimes triumphant, but seldom carefree.

'Be faithful to your roots' is the liberal version of 'Stay in your ghetto.'

Every day begins with an act of courage and hope: getting out of bed.

Totem poles and wooden masks no longer suggest tribal villages but fashionable drawing rooms in New York and Paris.

If you have the power to think, you have the power to change your world.

God gives us opportunity to serve him by serving humanity.

Every day people judge all other people. The question is whether they judge wisely.

True poetry is embarrassing.

Don’t ever be a stupid shadow who follows perfectly his leader no matter what foolishness his leader does!

Children will still die unjustly even in a perfect society. Even by his greatest effort, man can only propose to diminish, arithmetically, the sufferings of the world.

My dad was a dentist but I wasn't a hygienist. I assisted my dad.

Burroughs was never really that pleased with the way popular culture and society treated his character. He tried to make a few movies of his own as a result, but they weren't very good.

I don't think you'll ever be happy about anything unless you've done it.

Perhaps one of the most important lessons that I continue to have reinforced is to always have faith and believe in yourself. To never lose sight of who you are and to know yourself.