William Burroughs Audio & Video

Naked Lunch is one of the most important novels of the twentieth century. Exerting its influence on authors like Thomas Pynchon, J. G. Ballard, and William Gibson; on the relationship between art and obscenity; and on the shape of music, film, and media generally, it is one of the books that redefined not just literature, but American culture.

A vibrant portrait of a Beat Generation icon, WILLIAM S BURROUGHS: A MAN WITHIN explores the brilliant and troubled world of one of our greatest authors.

First half of a class by William S. Burroughs on the technology and the ethics of wishing.

Set in the corrupt and spectral Mexico City of the '40s, Queer is the story of William Lee, a man afflicted with both acute heroin withdrawal and romantic and sexual yearnings for an indifferent user named Eugene Allerton....

First half of a class with William S. Burroughs discussing various sources for writing, including dreams, voices (external and internal), and cut-up, giving examples from his own work.

In this archive lecture from Naropa University recorded in 1984, beat poets Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs discuss their views on writing.

Burroughs' first novel, a largely autobiographical account of the constant cycle of drug dependency, cures, and relapses, remains the most unflinching, unsentimental account of addiction ever written....

A lecture by William S. Burroughs on public discourse, with an introduction by Allen Ginsberg.

An interview with William S. Burroughs for Loka magazine with additional commentary by Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman.

"First thought, best thought”—that was the phrase that poet Allen Ginsberg used to describe spontaneous and fearless writing—a way of “telling the truth” that arises from naked and authentic experience.