Dr. Menlo’s looking for the exact “A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what’s going on” William S. Burroughs quote. There are a few permutations of it on the web, and I’ve yet to find a single actual citation. Did he say it in an interview? Was it in one of his books?
Update: At last, a textual citation. Wikiquote lists the quote as “A paranoid man is a man who knows a little about what’s going on” and cites Friend magazine in 1970. (Thanks to Joseph Matheny for the Wikiquote link!)
Update 2: The Cynics Lexicon (Google Books link) sources the sources the quote to Friends magazine as opposed to Friend. I’m guess it was this magazine.
Update 3: I asked some archivists who have a complete collection of Friends magazines if the quote showed up in the Burroughs interview in issue # 9, they said nothing along those lines is in that interview. Back to the drawing board.
July 26, 2006 at 4:21 am
think he said it in an interview if i remember correctly, it might be in the semiotext(e) interview collection with him, edited by sylv?re lotringer…
November 20, 2009 at 11:40 pm
Finally have the right quote, see the update in the post.