◊

Those masterful images because complete
Grew in pure mind, but out of what began?
A mound of refuse or the sweepings of a street,
Old kettles, old bottles, and a broken can,
Old iron, old bones, old rags, that raving slut
Who keeps the till. Now that my ladder’s gone,
I must lie down where all the ladders start
In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.

–William Butler Yeats, “The Circus Animals’ Desertion”

◊

In lifeproof houses they hover over the young, sop up a little of what they shut out.  Only the young bring anything in, and they are not young very long.

–William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch

◊

It ’s sex, sex, sex: sex is the root of it all: sex — the coming together of men and women: sex: sex.

–Walt Whitman

◊

At the heart of pornography is sexuality haunted by its own disappearance.

–Jean Baudrillard

◊

I’m so horny the crack of dawn better watch out.

–Tom Waits

◊

It is not upon you alone the dark patches fall,
The dark threw its patches down upon me also,
The best I had done seem’d to me blank and suspicious,
My great thoughts as I supposed them, were they not in reality meagre?
Nor is it you alone who know what it is to be evil,
I am he who knew what it was to be evil,
I too knitted the old knot of contrariety,
Blabb’d, blush’d, resented, lied, stole, grudg’d,
Had guile, anger, lust, hot wishes I dared not speak,
Was wayward, vain, greedy, shallow, sly, cowardly, malignant,
The wolf, the snake, the hog, not wanting in me.
The cheating look, the frivolous word, the adulterous wish, not wanting…

–Walt Whitman, from “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”

◊

America I used to be a communist when I was a kid and I’m not sorry.
I smoke marijuana every chance I get.
I sit in my house for days on end and stare at the roses in the closet.
When I go to Chinatown I get drunk and never get laid.
My mind is made up there’s going to be trouble.

–Allen Ginsberg, from “America”

◊

there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
human being to supply any given army on any given day
and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love
and the best at war finally are those who preach peace
those who preach god, need god
those who preach peace do not have peace
those who preach peace do not have love
beware the preachers
beware the knowers
beware those who are always reading books
beware those who either detest poverty
or are proud of it
beware those quick to praise
for they need praise in return
beware those who are quick to censor
they are afraid of what they do not know
beware those who seek constant crowds for
they are nothing alone
beware the average man the average woman
beware their love, their love is average
seeks average
but there is genius in their hatred
there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you
to kill anybody
not wanting solitude
not understanding solitude
they will attempt to destroy anything
that differs from their own
not being able to create art
they will not understand art
they will consider their failure as creators
only as a failure of the world
not being able to love fully
they will believe your love incomplete
and then they will hate you
and their hatred will be perfect
like a shining diamond
like a knife
like a mountain
like a tiger
like hemlock
their finest art

–Charles Bukowski, “The Genius of the Crowd”

◊

I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.

–Kurt Vonnegut

◊

As I sd to my
friend, because I am
always talking, — John, I

sd, which was not his
name, the darkness sur-
rounds us, what

can we do against
it, or else, shall we &
why not, buy a goddamn big car,

drive, he sd, for
christ’s sake, look
out where yr going.

–Robert Creeley, “I Know a Man”

◊

If we could just find out who’s in charge,
we could kill him.

–George Carlin

◊

Your denial is beneath you,
and thanks to the use of hallucinogenic drugs,
I see through you.

–Bill Hicks

◊

This is a song for the genius child.
Sing it softly, for the song is wild.
Sing it softly as ever you can -
Lest the song get out of hand.

Nobody loves a genius child.

–Langston Hughes

◊

For shizzle my whizzle this is the plot, listen up,
you pizzles forgot slizzle does not give a fuck.

–Eminem, “Till I Collapse”

◊

Does my penis make me a bad boy? That’s what they told me.

–Bill Hicks, Rant in E-Minor

◊

What business is it of yours what I do, read, buy, see, or take into my body as long as I do not harm another human being on this planet? And for those of you out there who’re having a little moral dilemma in your head about how to answer that question, I’ll answer it for you: none of your fucking business. Take that to the bank, cash it, and go fucking on a vacation out of my life.

–Bill Hicks

◊

Do not be angry with me if I tell you the truth

–Socrates

◊

I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive.

–Henry Miller

◊

Laugh fuckers
it’s all funny
I can spit in ya face
while your standin’ across from me,
no apologies.

–Eminem

◊

I met the Bishop on the road
And much said he and I.
‘Those breasts are flat and fallen now,
Those veins must soon be dry;
Live in a heavenly mansion,
Not in some foul sty.’

‘Fair and foul are near of kin,
And fair needs foul,’ I cried.
‘My friends are gone, but that’s a truth
Nor grave nor bed denied,
Learned in bodily lowliness
And in the heart’s pride.

‘A woman can be proud and stiff
When on love intent;
But Love has pitched his mansion in
The place of excrement;
For nothing can be sole or whole
That has not been rent.’

–William Butler Yeats, “Crazy Janes Talks With the Bishop”

◊