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# Newfound letters from William Burroughs explain his writing game.
- URL: https://www.killscreen.com/newfound-letters-from-william-burroughs-explain-his-writ/
- Published: 2012-02-02T17:37:00.000Z
- Updated: 2015-11-17T15:26:47.000Z
- Description: A new book compiling the letters of William S. Burroughs, the drug-addled satirist who wrote Naked Lunch, and my personal favorite author when I was a kid, will be released in February. A sample of the letters, ran by The Paris Review, shows a personable side of Burroughs rarely seen in his fiction.
- Author: Kill Screen Staff
- Tags: News, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-26 09:39

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A new book compiling [the letters of William S. Burroughs](http://www.amazon.com/Rub-Out-Words-Burroughs-1959-1974/dp/006171142X?ref=killscreen.com), the drug-addled satirist who wrote *Naked Lunch*, and my personal favorite author when I was a kid, will be released in February. [A sample of the letters](http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/01/26/selected-letters-of-william-s-burroughs/?ref=killscreen.com), ran by *The Paris Review*, shows a personable side of Burroughs rarely seen in his fiction.

One letter alludes to Burroughs’ writing “game”, the technique he used to write abstract, impossibly fragmented books such as *Nova Express* and *The Soft Machine* in the ’60s.

> A game I play is to type out phrases from Rimbaud or any poet I fancy. Then I cut into sections. Rearrange putting section four with section one and section two with section three and select a new arrangement.Try it some time with Rimbaud or any writing.

Also, Burroughs on taxes:

> As regards the War Tax Protest if I started protesting and refus­ing to contribute to all the uses of tax money of which I disap­ prove: Narcotics Department, FBI, CIA, any and all expenditures for nuclear weapons, in fact any expenditures to keep the antiquated idea of a nation on its dying legs, I would wind up refusing to pay one cent of taxes,

And Burroughs on making a living as an artist:

> It is indeed difficult to make a living as a writer and my advice to anyone contemplating a literary career is to have some other trade. My own choice would be plumb­ ing, but I suppose they have a tight union to keep this twenty dollar an hour with two lazy worthless assistants to hand the head man his tools good thing from being swamped. I have a friend in New York who is a painter and can’t make a living at that, who makes 50 dollars per day fixing up lofts

*\-Jason Johnson*

\[via [Paris Review](http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/01/26/selected-letters-of-william-s-burroughs/?ref=killscreen.com)\]

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