A Quote by Yony Leyser
All of William S. Burroughs friends pushed it forward and introduced me to one another. I was able to enter into that beat family for a while and document it.
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Norman Mailer thinks William Burroughs is a genius, which I think is ludicrous beyond words. I don't think William Burroughs has an ounce of talent.
Like many nonconformist and beat generation writers, William S. Burroughs takes the outcasts of society as his theme.
I was taken by William Burroughs’ presence and intelligence from the first time I was introduced to him, by Lester Bangs in 1975. He was thrilling to listen to. When you heard him speak, you felt that you were privy to such a rare mind. Even in small-talk, he spoke with perfect economy of language. His shoots with me were very collaborative and it was an incredible opportunity to be able to photograph him over the course of twenty years.
I tell this anecdote with tongue in cheek at the start of my book William Burroughs and the Secret of Fascination, but my academic involvement with Burroughs was entirely due to my tutor at Oxford, Peter Conrad. I was discussing with him the idea of staying on to do graduate work and when I tossed the name of Burroughs into the conversation - well, he let it fall loudly onto the floor, and proceeded to cross himself as if warding off an evil spirit. Since I was very ambivalent about an academic career in any case, that decided it for me.
When I was young, I knew William Burroughs really well. And William's secret desire, which he never quite did, was to write a straightforward detective novel.
If everyone's happy, then I'm the character where when I enter that means there's trouble. In a movie, when I enter, it's not a good thing. But I know where I'm at. But, you know, you don't have to call me by my character's name for months on end. Football taught me that, because you can go from being best friends to having to play that person on another team, you have to be able to turn that on and off. You need to find that middle ground.
As an actor, to be able to experiment and grow and be pushed, it's been phenomenal for me, and it's given me confidence to move forward.
Burroughs is the greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift. . . . The net result of Naked Lunch will be to make people shudder at their own lies, will be to make them open up and be straight with one another. Swift and Rabelais and Sterne accomplished a step in that direction, and Burroughs another.
I was suckered in by the myth of the man [ William Burroughs] as much as by his work.
Origami Striptease reads like William S. Burroughs and Djuna Barnes howling at a brutal paper moon.
Queer culture was introduced to me at a very early age. It was introduced to me with a semi-positive facet because no one in my family is remotely homophobic or closed-minded.
I really think [William] Burroughs was onto something here, when he said, "Dreams are a biologic necessity and your lifeline into space."
I met William Burroughs in 1971. I got his address through a magazine and went to London to spend time with him.
Any success that I have had as a goalkeeper in MLS with Crew SC is a testament to those around me who have pushed me - teammates, coaches, staff, family, friends and supporters.
It's interesting, a lot of my friends and family thought that was the moment I kind of showed everyone my humor; the silly side of me that friends and family know, so that could be what people were responding to. I have a big sense of humor, and people who know me know that silly side of me, so moving forward, I think it gives me the freedom and confidence to do more of that.
[Allen] Ginsberg totally helped that out. He was the best sales person. He was the most pop. They are still shocking and relevant, especially [William] Burroughs.
