"I've never been interested in politics, nor do I feel that politics have accomplished much or changed things. There has been a terrific cultural revolution that has made more alterations."

WILLIAM BURROUGHS



The San Francisco Phoenix newspaper
copyright December, 1974 by Richard S. Ehrlich


William Burroughs, dressed in his archetypical business suit, sat relaxed behind manuscripts and copies of his books, "Naked Lunch," and "The Wild Boys."

His technological St. Louis voice reeled narratively through selections of his current writings.

In talking with him immediately after his reading, Burroughs revealed both his comical and reserved selves, especially in his deliberate and thoughtful cadence.


Q: What's happening on Venus these days?

Burroughs: God knows.

Q: What do you think of David Bowie?

Burroughs: Oh, he's very clever. He's nice, nice. A nice young man."

(Someone asks, "Wholesome?")

Burroughs: No, That's not what he's featuring. Wholesome? God Almighty.

Q: You have a project going on in England?

Burroughs: No, I'm living here now. I've pulled out of England.

Q: Where?

Burroughs: I'm living in New York at the moment. It's OK.

Q: What part of the city are you living in?

Burroughs: I'm living in Lower Soho. It's below Canal Street.

Q: Are you doing anything with film now?

Burroughs: No. I was trying to do something with a Dutch Schultz film. I don't know if it's going to work out or not.

Q: Where is Brion Gysin?

Burroughs: Brion is in Paris. Quite ill incidentally. I don't quite know with what.

(He signs his name on a copy of "Ticket That Exploded")

Burroughs: I'd like to change my name to Lee so people would get it over the telephone. It would simplify a lot of things. My middle name is Stewart. English.

Q: What's William Burroughs, Jr. doing these days?

Burroughs: He's living in, he's in Santa Cruz. I expect to see him this week.

Q: Is he still writing?

Burroughs: Yes, he is.

Q: There was a rumor going that you would come out dressed as the Pope -- since you are doing this reading here in a church (San Francisco's Unitarian) -- wearing a huge headdress.

Burroughs: Hummmmmmmm.

Q: I'd like to write to you in New York. what is your address there?

Burroughs: 77 Franklin Street.

(Someone intent on doing his astrological chart asks: "What year were you born?")

Burroughs: 1914.

("Do you know what time?")

Burroughs: Sorry, I don't know. Oh, I think it was in the morning, like 3 a.m.

Q: Do you have a political persuasion?

Burroughs: No, I don't. I've never been interested in politics, nor do I feel that politics have accomplished much or changed things. There has been a terrific cultural revolution that has made more alterations.

Q: What does the United States feel like, after being gone for a number of years?

Burroughs: Well, it has changed a lot. I would say for the better. It's more relaxed. A different atmosphere than it was ten years ago.

Q: What is the title of your current book?

Burroughs: "Cities of the Red Night."

Q: Have you considered using television for cut-ups?

Burroughs: Oh sure. I'm waiting for the price to come down on the Japanese model that is being made now, to $28.50. With those you plug yourself right into the television, play back, and start making your own television shows.

Q: Which current film maker do you most admire?

Burroughs: Oh uh, Pekinpah, to a point. Who else is there? Kenneth Anger.

(Someone suggests, "Goddard?")

Burroughs: Who? Goddard? What'd he do? Oh, you know, up to a point.

Q: What's the percentage of what you know you know, and what you know?

Burroughs: Well, it compares with what appears above the water on an iceberg. For example, you actually remember everything that's ever happened to you. But that knowledge is not available to you. It can become available under hypnosis.

Q: Your style has been compared to Eliot, Joyce and Kafka.

Burroughs: Yes, I would agree, definitely with Eliot and Joyce. Kafka is quite an influence.

Q: What was that machine going around and around in your film, "Cut-Ups"?

Burroughs: That was interesting. It's simply a flicker. You can do the same thing with a strobe-a-scope. It's a way of producing a flicker, if you have a light in a cylinder, and revolve the cylinder until you get the light at a certain frequency, which is between eight and thirteen per alpha rhythm. It's the rate at which the light is flickering into your eye. The number of light impulses per second.

Q: Do you think computers can turn out good works of art and music?

Burroughs: Well, I just haven't seen much that they've done that seems, to me, to be very significant. They finally did, "Bicycles Built for Two," which was used to some advantage in, "2001." But other than that, I haven't seen anything very interesting.

Q: Are there any drugs you feel positive about?

Burroughs: Yeah, I do use alcohol and tobacco.

Q: What caused you to begin writing, and what caused you to continue?

Burroughs: Well, when I was thirty-five, someone suggested to me that I might write my experiences of addiction. And that was, "Junkie." After that was published, I was encouraged to go on writing. I don't think any writer goes on indefinitely without publication.