Born Christopher Robison in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the youngest of two sons to Margaret Robison, a poet, and John G. Robison, former head of the philosophy department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is also the younger brother of memoirist John Elder Robison. Though he was born in Pittsburgh, he was raised in western Massachusetts towns, including Shutesbury, Amherst and Northampton. His parents divorced on July 29, 1978, when Burroughs was twelve years old, and was adopted by his mother's psychiatrist whom resided in the Northampton area.

Burroughs dropped out of school after the sixth grade, and obtained a GED at age 17. He chose his name at age 18, and legally changed it in Boston. He later enrolled at Holyoke Community College in Holyoke, Massachusetts as a pre-med student, however dropped out before the end of the first semester. He decided to settle in New York City, and held a high-paying career in a Manhattan-based advertising company. In 1996, he sought treatment for alcoholism at a rehabilitation center in Minnesota before returning to Manhattan.

His books are published by St. Martin's Press and Picador. Some of his childhood experiences were chronicled in Running with Scissors (2002), which was later developed into a film.In addition to Scissors, Burroughs penned a second memoir, Dry (2003), about his experience during and after treatment for alcoholism. It was followed by two collections of memoir essays, Magical Thinking (2003) and Possible Side Effects (2006). His first novel, Sellevision (2000), is currently in production as a feature film.

Burroughs' writing focuses on subjects such as advertising, psychiatrists, religious families, and home shopping networks. It has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, House & Garden, BlackBook Magazine, New York, The Times, Bark, Attitude, and Out. Burroughs writes a monthly column for Details. Early in his career, he was a regular commentator on National Public Radio's Morning Edition.

Burroughs has been profiled in People, The Guardian, and Entertainment Weekly, where he ranked 15 on the 2005 list of "The 25 Funniest People in America" and was named to the magazine's "It List".

In a January 2005 interview, reflecting on his life with his (now former) partner, graphic designer Dennis Pilsits, Burroughs said paying tax should allow same-sex couples full legal entitlements: "That’s what gay people need to be allowed to do — get married. Not have domestic partnerships; that’s not acceptable. I don’t believe for a moment [gay marriage] would destroy the sanctity of marriage. But let’s just say for a moment that it does. Well, then the sanctity of marriage just has to be destroyed. It’s just too bad. You can’t have one set of benefits and only give them to some of the people."

In 2005, Universal Studios and Red Wagon Productions bought the rights to a film based on a then-unreleased memoir about Burroughs' relationship with his father. The book, called A Wolf at the Table, was released on April 29, 2008.

In October 2009, Burroughs released Stories for Christmas, a book of short Christmas stories based on true events that occurred during his childhood.

Burroughs divides times between New York City and Amherst, Massachusetts.

In August 2007, Burroughs and his publisher, St. Martin's Press, settled with the Turcotte family, who stated that they were the basis for the Finch family portrayed in the book. The Turcottes, who alleged that Running with Scissors was largely fictional and written in a sensational manner, sought damages of $2 million for invasion of privacy, defamation, and emotional distress. Burroughs defended his work as "entirely accurate", but agreed to call the work a "book" (instead of "memoir") in the author's note, to alter the acknowledgments page in future editions to recognize the Turcotte family's conflicting memories of described events, and express regret for "any unintentional harm" to the Turcotte family. Burroughs felt vindicated by the settlement. "I'm not at all sorry that I wrote [the book]. And you know, the suit settled-- it settled in my favor. I didn't change a word of the memoir, not one word of it. It's still a memoir, it's marketed as a memoir, [the Turcottes] agreed one hundred percent that it is a memoir."

Upon settling the Running With Scissors case in August 2007, Burroughs stated, "I consider this not only a personal victory but a victory for all memoirists. I still maintain that the book is an entirely accurate memoir, and that it was not fictionalized or sensationalized in any way. I did not embellish or invent elements. We had a very strong case because I had the truth on my side."

Running With Scissors was made into a film in 2006. It was directed by Ryan Murphy, produced by Brad Pitt, and starred Joseph Cross, Annette Benning, Alec Baldwin and Evan Rachel Wood. Benning was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role.

Burroughs is currently writing the screenplay for two upcoming television series: he is working on a Showtime series based on his memoir, Dry, and writing a drama series for CBS titled The Nature of Fire, which follows a group of male firefighters.

• 2000 — Sellevision (ISBN 0-312-26772-X) (fiction)
• 2002 — Running with Scissors (ISBN 0-312-28370-9)
• 2003 — Dry (ISBN 0-312-42379-9)
• 2004 — Magical Thinking (ISBN 0-312-31594-5)
• 2006 — Possible Side Effects (ISBN 0-312-31596-1)
• 2008 — A Wolf at the Table (ISBN 0-312-42827-8)
• 2009 — Stories for Christmas (ISBN 0-312-34191-1)

Contributions

• 2007 - My Life with Asperger's - John Elder Robison (ISBN 0-7393-5768-9) (foreword)