“So often is the virgin sheet of paper more real than what one has to say, and so often one regrets having marred it.”-Harold Acton (Memoirs of an Aesthete, 1948)
A Small Press Life
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“So often is the virgin sheet of paper more real than what one has to say, and so often one regrets having marred it.”-Harold Acton (Memoirs of an Aesthete, 1948)
Burroughs say, “To speak is to lie.” he does follow it with something about thinking, but I can’t recall the rest.
I love that. I’ll have to look up the rest of it; I’m curious.
It’s out of NOVA EXPRESS. If I can find the book and the passage in it, I’ll let you know.
Thanks! I’ve read-and own-many Burroughs volumes but I do not have a copy of Nova Express (or The Ticket That Exploded, for that matter).
I haven’t read him for years, but was browsing through NOVA EXPRESS, and read the line. I used to read quite a lot of him.
My reading of/appreciation for Burroughs is cyclical. Maybe it is time for another upswing.
Here’s the line: “I would like to sound a word of warning–To speak is to lie–To live is to collaborate–Anybody is a coward when faced by the nova ovens–There are degrees of lying collaboration and cowardice–That is to say degrees of intoxication–It is precisely a question of regulation–”
Thanks for digging up the passage for me. It’s good stuff.
Most of my reading is cyclical too, and you’re welcome…I also wanted to know.
Well, you made it much easier for me!
SO TRUE.
Agreed!