I planned on making this post about some key quotes from The Crying Of Lot 49, but as I pulled up some of them, I realized how much I like quotes from Thomas Pynchon in general. So that’s what you get today.
Pynchon’s a smart man.
Here’s some of my favorites of his quotes, which I took from Good Reads.
“Everybody gets told to write about what they know. The trouble with many of us is that at the earlier stages of life we think we know everything- or to put it more usefully, we are often unaware of the scope and structure of our ignorance.” [Slow Learner]
“Paranoids are not paranoid because they’re paranoid, but because they keep putting themselves, f*ing idiots, deliberately into paranoid situations.”
“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers.” [Gravity's Rainbow]
“Through the machineries of greed, pettiness, and the abuse of power, love occurs.” [Gravity's Rainbow]
“There is nothing so loathsome as a sentimental surrealist.” [Gravity's Rainbow]
“Explosion without an objective’, declared Miles Blundell, ‘is politics in its purest form’.” [Against The Day]
Keep in mind, I still have Gravity’s Rainbow to tackle from this list, so I’ll be getting around to more Pynchon later.
He’s not light reading for sure, but he’s definitely entertaining reading if you can stay with him.
