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JamesPD · **Joined:** Thu May 22, 2008 4:42 am **Posts:** 126

I've got the following quote written down a piece of paper, sourced to WSB, can anyone tell me what book it's taken from? I'm pretty certain it's from The Job or perhaps The Adding Machine, or one of the other collections of interviews and essays, but I'm having no luck with google. Quote follows...

"To me the most unforgivable sin is the lie, because like counterfeit currency, it devalues truth"

RealityStudio · **Posted:** Sun Aug 09, 2009 8:20 am

I'm drawing a blank on that. Anyone else?

Only Me · **Joined:** Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:54 pm **Posts:** 1130

It's in Last Words:

http://books.google.com/books?id=gRxjTB ... 22&f=false

Amazing what a simple cut-n-paste Google search can accomplish!

JamesPD · **Joined:** Thu May 22, 2008 4:42 am **Posts:** 126

Bah! Damn smart-ass kids with their Googles and their Hipperty-Hop music... Back in my day...

(p.s. Ta, muchly)

Benway4SurgeonGenral · **Joined:** Wed Dec 17, 2008 2:24 pm **Posts:** 145

Last Words is full of great quotes -- highly underrated -- Burroughs remained sharp and insightful to the very end.

edward_de_vere · **Joined:** Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:16 pm **Posts:** 321

There's a quote along the same line from Naked Lunch, "To speak is to lie, to live is to collaborate."

JamesPD · **Joined:** Thu May 22, 2008 4:42 am **Posts:** 126

Hmm. I think that last quote is from Nova Express rather than Naked Lunch. It's certainly showing up that way on Google Books.

edward_de_vere · **Joined:** Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:16 pm **Posts:** 321

Quote:

I think that last quote is from Nova Express rather than Naked Lunch

Yes, I think you're right. Is it from the "Pay Color" chapter?

Only Me · **Joined:** Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:54 pm **Posts:** 1130

I just read Nova Express recently and that line was in there. Dunno what chapter.

JamesPD · **Joined:** Thu May 22, 2008 4:42 am **Posts:** 126

I don't think it's from 'Pay Color' which is near the end of the book, whereas the quote is from the beginning, I think. Looking at the dodgy textfile, it looks like the chapter is called 'Last Words', Page 7 in version on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Nova-Express-William-S-Burroughs/dp/0802133304/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249936873&sr=8-1#reader

Actual quote in context follows...

Quote:

"The purpose of my writing is to expose and arrest Nova Criminals. In Naked Lunch, Soft Machine and Nova Express I show who they are and what they are doing and what they will do if they are not arrested. Minutes to go. Souls rotten from their orgasm drugs, flesh shuddering from their nova ovens, prisoners of the earth to come out. With your help we can occupy The Reality Studio and retake their universe of Fear Death and Monopoly –
"(Signed) INSPECTOR J. LEE, NOVA POLICE"

Post Script Of The Regulator: I would like to sound a word of warning - To speak is 'to lie - To live is to collaborate - Anybody is a coward when faced by the nova ovens - There are degrees of lying collaboration and cowardice - That is to say degrees of intoxication - It is precisely a question of regulation - The enemy is not man is not woman - The enemy exists only where no life is and moves always to push life into extreme untenable positions - You can cut the enemy off your line by the judicious use of apomorphine and silence - Use the sanity drug apomorphine.

"Apomorphine is made from morphine but its physiological action is quite different. Morphine depresses the front brain. Apomorphine stimulates the back brain, acts on the hypothalamus to regulate the percentage of various constituents in the blood serum and so normalize the constitution of the blood." I quote from Anxiety and Its Treatment by Doctor John Yerbury Dent.

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Source of WSB Quote on Lying

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