Burroughs on Castaneda

BURROUGHS: ...You've read Castaneda's Don Juan books. Don Juan says that nothing can be accomplished magically. Stopping the internal dialogue, in effect, enables you to have access to your will. Stopping the internal dialogue enables you to will without desiring. Don Juan says that you can't advance until you achieve that. see, If you want money without desiring it, you get it, but if you desire it and are thinking, 'I'm going to do this, that and the other with it,' that desire becomes a hindrance.

INTERVIEWER: You spoke of Carlos Castaneda books, and i remember that Don Juan says that death is always over one's shoulder. Do you believe that?

BURROUGHS: Yes, Don Juan and also the Buddhists claim that death is always there. It's something you carry with you.

INTERVIEWER: Is that something you've experienced? Do you experience your own death?

BURROUGHS: Of course.

INTERVIEWER: Is it possible to point out in your writing where your death is reflected?

BURROUGHS: I would say in every sentence.

INTERVIEWER: Do you believe in rebirth, too?

BURROUGHS: Yes.

INTERVIEWER: Is there a Zen principle that says one should follow a path of the heart? I know Castaneda talks about that idea -- that one should find a path with heart and follow it throughout life.

BURROUGHS: Well, the word "should" must be ruled out [Castaneda always loathed that word] because it's up to you and what you want to do. I think Don Juan's saying something very similar, not only to Buddhism, but to a lot of disciplines. What he means by a path with heart is a sort of intuitive guidance system to where you are going.

From Burroughs Live: The Collected Interviews of William S. Burroughs 1960-1997 © 2000 Semiotext(e), Los Angeles, CA. pp. 443-4.

William Seward Burroughs II (February 5, 1914(1914-02-05) - August 2, 1997; more commonly known as William S. Burroughs, was an American novelist, essayist, social critic, painter and spoken word performer.

Much of Burroughs' work is semi-autobiographical, drawn from his experiences as an opiate addict, a condition that marked the last fifty years of his life. A primary member of the Beat Generation, he was an avant-garde author who affected popular culture as well as literature. In 1984, he was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

Burroughs was born in 1914, the younger of two sons of a prominent family in St. Louis, Missouri. His grandfather, William Seward Burroughs I, founded the Burroughs Adding Machine company, which evolved into the Burroughs Corporation.

Burroughs is often called one of the greatest and most influential writers of the twentieth century, most notably by Norman Mailer whose quote on Burroughs, "The only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius", appears on many Burroughs publications. Others, however, consider him overrated. Others still consider his concepts and attitude more influential than his prose. Prominent admirers of Burroughs's work have included British critic and biographer Peter Ackroyd, the rock critic Lester Bangs and the authors J.G. Ballard, Angela Carter, Jean Genet, William Gibson, Charles Bukowski, Alan Moore and Ken Kesey.

Burroughs continues to be named as an influence by contemporary writers of fiction. Both the New Wave and, especially, the cyberpunk schools of science fiction are indebted to him, admirers from the late 1970s, early 1980s milieu of this sub-genre including William Gibson and John Shirley, to name only two. First published in 1982, the British slipstream fiction magazine (which later evolved into a more traditional science fiction magazine) Interzone paid tribute to him with its choice of name.