3 Quotes & Sayings By Brion Gysin

Brion Gysin was a poet, artist and writer best known for his "cut-up" method of literary composition. He was the creator of the "cut-up" technique, which he applied to writing poetry and creating art. A friend and collaborator of William S. Burroughs and John Cage, Gysin lived in London from 1947 until his death from diabetes in 1986 Read more

Much of the material in this collection is taken from his extensive writings on cut-ups, which were published later in an edited form under the title The Third Mind. Gysin's own writings on cut-ups can be found in his books Word Coupé(1954) and The Third Mind(1977). These works are included here in a collection that also includes poems by Brion Gysin, William S.

Burroughs, and John Cage.

1
The poets are supposed to liberate the words — not chain them in phrases. Who told the poets they were supposed to think? Poets are meant to sing and to make words sing. Writers don't own their words. Since when do words belong to anybody? 'Your very own words, ' indeed! And who are you? Brion Gysin
2
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