When there’s nothing else to do

William Burroughs speaks of why and when of his writing. No fancy reason. Plain boredom, perhaps. Someone now got plenty of it and nearing that age –

BURROUGHS

I started to write in about 1950; I was thirty-five at the time; there didn’t seem to be any strong motivation. I simply was endeavoring to put down in a more or less straightforward journalistic style something about my experiences with addiction and addicts.  

INTERVIEWER

Why did you feel compelled to record these experiences?  

BURROUGHS

I didn’t feel compelled. I had nothing else to do. Writing gave me something to do every day. I don’t feel the results were at all spectacular. Junky is not much of a book, actually. I knew very little about writing at that time.