“Once a junky, always a junky. You can stop using junk, but you are never off after the first habit.”

— William S. Burroughs , book Junkie

Junkie (1953)
Context: Why does an addict get a new habit so much quicker than a junk virgin, even after the addict has been clean for years? I do not accept the theory that junk is lurking in the body all that time - the spine is where it supposedly holes up - and I disagree with all psychological answers. I think the use of junk causes permanent cellular alteration. Once a junky, always a junky. You can stop using junk, but you are never off after the first habit.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update March 19, 2022. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Once a junky, always a junky. You can stop using junk, but you are never off after the first habit." by William S. Burroughs?

William S. Burroughs 110

American novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter, a… 1914–1997

Related quotes

“A junky runs on junk time. When his junk is cut off, the clock runs down and stops. All he can do is hang on and wait for non-junk time to start. A sick junkie has no escape from external time, no place to go. He can only wait.”

William S. Burroughs book Junkie

Junkie (1953)

“Tea heads are not like junkies. A junky hands you the money, takes his junk and cuts. But tea heads don't do things that way. They expect the peddler to light them up and sit around talking for half an hour to sell two dollars' worth of weed. If you come right to the point, they say you are a "bring down."”

William S. Burroughs book Junkie

In fact, a peddler should not come right out and say he is a peddler.
Junkie (1953)

“Who's going to rob us? A crackhead crab? A jellyfish junkie?”

Kathy Reichs Virals

Source: Virals

“Barger thought Hunter provoked Junkie George so that the beating could be used as a gimmick to promote the book.”

William McKeen (1954) American academic

Source: Outlaw Journalist (2008), Chapter 7, Among The Angels, p. 111

“For a lot of people, their first love is what they'll always remember. For me it's always been the first hate, and I think that hatred, though it provides often rather junky energy, is a terrific way of getting you out of bed in the morning and keeping you going. If you don't let it get out of hand, it can be canalized into writing. In this country where people love to be nonjudgmental when they can be, which translates as, on the whole, lenient, there are an awful lot of bubble reputations floating around that one wouldn't be doing one's job if one didn't itch to prick.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

" For the Sake of Argument https://web.archive.org/web/20070827152049/http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1171" at www.booknotes.org, October 17, 1993.
1990s