Gysin Quotes & Sayings

Some trillions of years ago a sloppy, dirty giant flicked grease from his fingers. One of those gobs of grease is our universe on its way to the floor. Splat! — Brion Gysin

The dirt is picturesque, so I don't mind. — Louisa May Alcott

You should never do two things. You should hammer one nail all your life, and I didn't do that; I hammered on a lot of nails like a xylophone. — Brion Gysin

It is disgraceful to live at the cost of one's self-respect. Self-respect is the most vital factor in life. Without it, man is a cipher. To live worthily with self-respect, one has to overcome difficulties. It is out of hard and ceaseless struggle alone that one derives strength, confidence and recognition. — B.R. Ambedkar

Basically, I've reached the point where I've lost any direct relationship to any of the editors I used to have. I suspect I'll have to pay to publish this myself, and I think a lot about about putting out fifty copies. I used to think about hogwash like my legacy and silly things like that. But I feel like if I never have another book out, I've done okay, I've had like twelve or thirteen little books, and I won't be upset about this on my death bed. — Richard Meltzer

The first person who really showed me the ugly spirit was Brion Gysin. "The ugly spirit shot Joan because ... " and I never found out why. This Brion wrote out on a piece of paper in a sort of trance state. — Allen Ginsberg

The idea was that we would decide the order when we looked at the proofs. I remember Brion Gysin saying "Well, why change it? It's perfect the way it is, the way it came from the printer." Made one major change, that is, the first chapter that came from the printers, which would be the beginning, we moved to the end. The first chapter became the last chapter. There's no actual cutups in Naked Lunch. — William S. Burroughs

OFFICERS OF OUR GUERILLA MUST BE POETS.
THE AREA OF POETRY MUST BE CONSTANTLY RE-CREATED.
- Brion Gysin, Guerrilla Conditions, nd. — Brion Gysin

Writing is fifty years behind painting. — Brion Gysin

I could easily blast so much keef night and day I become a bouhali; a real-gone crazy, a holy untouchable madman unto whom everything is permitted, nothing is true. — Brion Gysin

Love always has its price, come whence it may. — Guy De Maupassant

What are we here for? Does the great metaphysical nut revolve around that? Well, I'll crack it for you, right now. What are we here for? We are here to go! — Brion Gysin

...There is no friendship in the desert, there is no love. The Sahara only knows allies and accomplices. [Hopkins quoting B. Gysin's The Process] — John Hopkins

When you get to be my age there are more and more people you have known that you miss. Brion [Gysin], Antony Balch, Ian Summerville are ones I think of right away I was quite close to. — William S. Burroughs

Man is a bad animal.... — Brion Gysin

The resulting texts always took a narrative term, enigmatic at first but ultimately explicit and often premonitory. The semantic distribution of these basic elements diverted them from their original meaning, thus revealing their real significance. Henceforth, every form of writing will consist of an operation of decoding, of contamination, and of sense perversion. All this because all language is essentially mystification, and everything is fiction. — Brion Gysin

Sometimes a good girl needs to be bad. — Katie McGarry

When ya gotta goNow we know what we are here for. We are not here to love fear and serve any old bearded but invisible thunder god. We are here to go. — Brion Gysin

A born poet knows in his cradle that a poetic life is the only life worth living. — James Broughton

You get up. You put on your clothes. And then you put on your personality. Choose wisely. — Matt Haig

I enjoy inventing things out of fun. After all, life is a game, not a career. — Brion Gysin

As no two people see the world the same way, all trips from here to there are imaginary; all truth is a tale I am telling myself. — Brion Gysin