Thanks so much for this upload!!! It's beautiful to see two absolute faves on the same stage. Both of these artists radically altered and improved my perspective on life and enhanced my understanding of words and their subversive power. I could talk about them for hours. lol Thanks so much.

His Voice Is A Weapon

I was on a methadone clinic with Mr Burroughs when he was living in Lawrence Kansas ,he was a wonderful person to talk with and very gracious , he would then go to Nichols Lunch in Kansas City every Wednesday morning for breakfast , he was a very brilliant individual , RIP Mr Burroughs

What a great document of such an important literary figure. And Kathy, such as gracious interviewer, left us too young.

Dear Burroughs Fans, you might have missed that a new book about and with him was published. its called "soft need 23", and includes a lot of fresh material by him, his colleagues and friends! It turned out amazing, check it out.

I could listen to this dude all day

I read Naked Lunch in 1989. Beat up copy at a friend’s place. Great novel. Never put up with talking assholes again.

Someone posted this on Tumblr, so I came looking for it on KZfaq. Thank you so much for posting this-I saw this at some little repertory cinema in Montréal 25 years ago, with French subtitles, and it never let me go.

4:21 - I like that he corrected himself. By this point in his life had opened up more to the influence of women, his world view wasn't exclusively male as it had been by his own admission.

Beer, dope and braggadocio... AND OF COURSE, Dancing BOYS! I'm sure that he was in heaven😉😉😉

I think he is proof It is not how the person accepts the drug It is how the drug accepts the person

I have this in two parts somewhere amidst my digital detritus,…upload from years ago. Very Appreciative that this division in footage was finally welded together here digitally. Nostrovia

I love this interview.

Working on my Burroughs impersonation. One of my favorite voices to do it’s so distinct.

Great interview.

There is something much more amazing about Burroughs than his works. How the fuck did he survive that long?

kathy acker 👌

I wonder if Jim Morrison drew inspiration for the Soft Parade, from William ,B. The similarities are uncanny.

I was at this opening, as the gallery was owned by the mother of a friend of mine. I watched people come up and flatter him- obese society women saying "Oh William!" or whatever, and when I was asked if I wanted to smoke a joint with him in the office, I watched him standing on his own, looking tired, and thought no, what would I have to say to him? Now, I realise i had loads to say to him. Stuff he might even be interested in, but i was 19 and shy. I did take a splinter from one of the shotgun paintingss.Kept it for years.

Acker was one of the few major authors who really took Burroughs to task for killing his wife. I miss her dearly

I agree with him entirely about the "either"/"or" fallacy, by the way. It is definitely a major cognitive error in "mainstream" Western thought, and it permeates our discourse -- political and every other type.

i think burroughs was too smart for most interviews,they always wanted to ask the typical taboo questions,this was a really well read man and its a shame most of the interviews we have are of the same questions

💯.......👍🏼👍🏼

Great to see this interview; thank you so much for posting it. The book on Jesus he mentions toward the end - as far as I know this never materialized. Does anyone know if any fragments or excerpts were ever published?

His work with Kurt Cobain is quite good.

I love how he slams that glass after a sip of water. Almost like some form of OCD.

wow lmao she is slating him, just like "so... flop?"

I see WB's point about the glorifying of self in belief systems. As a note Islam also says, "All glories to the Almighty." I think the point is human conception of the everlasting and the Almighty is the same as a pebble of sand. You cannot destroy what you cannot see? That means all flesh inevitably falls to hubris. Wisdom is in understanding why we falter? We all do.

He didn't write Junkie, his first book, till he was 50 years old. Was on some opiate till his death.

I have a fair amount of respect for Burroughs as an author and enjoy listening to him speak too, but I think there's nuance beyond the obvious ethical questions around his killing of his wife. He was intelligent and well-read, but he was also a fuckin' kook, vis the blasé open-mindedness on display here about Scientology and EST, both damaging cults based on laughably stupid ideas, and remarks elsewhere about things like demonic possession. Frequently in his wake its seemed like this pick 'n' mix occultism irritatingly defined the landscape of avant garde writing. I remember a call for submissions from Stuart Home for some publication or grant where an interest not just in experimental writing but in this kind of magical-thinking BS was all too predictably part of the criteria, and feeling that this was entirely, frustratingly typical. Other than that, after the knock-out early stuff, both the famous experiments and the relatively trad but still highly distinctive work that predated it - Junky and Queer - in his later efforts he fell into repetition of his old tricks and obsessions, resulting in some very dull reads. The Place of Dead Roads and Cities of the Red Night are examples, both bad in my view.

but was he still using heroin during this period? or opiates in general general? he has a voice....he seems done

The interviewer is very dull in her attempts to be erudite.

It kind of seems like he is tweaking in this interview, he cant hold still for more than a moment and keeps shifting around in his seat, and then he keeps insufferably sipping on that little glass of water. Perhaps that benzedrine he took in Junky never quite wore off!

He was a deviant.

I think he was a better painter than writer.. his books are terrible... after Junky & Queer..