From Michael Herr‘s ridiculously overpriced book, “Kubrick“: “‘A paranoid schizophrenic is a guy who just found out what is going on’ is a famous William S. Burroughs-ism. I once told it to Stanley Kubrick, and he took it to his heart. ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute…I’ve gotta write that down.’ He put it into wide release, telling it to everyone he knew, and I think it was mostly because he was so pleased to find himself of one mind with someone he admired as much as Burroughs.”
HE comment: I always thought the definitive Burroughs remark about paranoia was a four-word definition: “Knowing all the facts.”
Alternate Burroughs version: “A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what’s going on. A psychotic is a guy who’s just found out what’s going on.”
(Largely copies from 8.17 Joseph McBride Facebook posting.)
