BURROUGHS: The weapon of
the Wild Boys is a bowie knife, an 18-inch bowie knife, did you know that?
BOWIE: An 18-inch bowie knife… You don’t do things by halves, do you. No, I didn’t know that was their weapon. The name Bowie just appealed to me when I was younger. I was into a kind of heavy philosophy thing when I was 16 years old, and I wanted a truism about cutting through the lies and all that.
BURROUGHS: Well, it cuts both ways, you know, double-edged on the end.
BOWIE: I didn’t see it cutting both ways till now.
1974, Rolling Stone magazine