William S. Burroughs was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on February 5, 1914, but became involved with the Beats in the Village in the 1940s. He lived at 69 Bedford Street in New York City.

Here are some quotes from his best-known novel Naked Lunch:

be just and if you can't be just, be arbitrary

 

A functioning police state needs no police.

 

I awoke from The Sickness at the age of 45, calm and sane, and in reasonably good health except for a weakened liver and the look of borrowed flesh common to all who survive The Sickness...