Pynchon Quotes

“Keep cool but care”
― Thomas Pynchon, V.

“Not me, paranoia's the garlic in life's kitchen, right, you can never have too much.”
― Thomas Pynchon, Bleeding Edge

“You came to talk about the play," he said. "Let me discourage you. It was written to entertain people. Like horror movies. It isn't literature, it doesn't mean anything. Wharfinger was no Shakespeare." "Who was he?" she said. "Who was Shakespeare? It was a long time ago.”
― Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49

“The Telescope, the Fluxions, the invention of Logarithms and the frenzy of multiplication, often for its own sake, that follow'd have for Emerson all been steps of an unarguable approach to God, a growing clarity,- Gravity, the pulse of time, the finite speed of Light present themselves to him as aspect of God's character. It's like becoming friendly with an erratic, powerful, potentially dangerous member of the Aristocracy. He holds no quarrel with the Creator's sovereignty, but is repeatedly appall'd at the lapses in Attention, the flaws in Design, the squand'rings of life and energy, the failures to be reasonable, or to exercise common sense,- first appall'd, then angry. We are taught,- we believe,- that it is love of the Creation which drives the Philosopher in his Studies. Emerson is driven, rather, by a passionate Resentment.”
― Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon

“Well, ring-tailed rutabagas.”
― thomas pynchon, Against the Day

“Witnesses parade in, there is the travesty of a trial, and Ercole meets his end in a refreshingly simple mass stabbing.”
― Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49

“For about ten minutes the vengeful crew proceed to maim, strangle, poison, burn, stomp, blind and otherwise have at Pasquale, while he describes intimately his varied sensations for our enjoyment.”
― Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49

“Remember that Puritans were utterly devoted, like literary critics, to the Word.”
― Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49

“Pynchon has been a favorite writer and a major influence all along. In many ways I see him as almost the start of a certain mutant pop culture imagery with esoteric historical and scientific information. Pynchon is a kind of mythic hero of mine, and I suspect that if you talk with a lot of recent SF writers you'll find they've all read Gravity's Rainbow (1973) several times and have been very much influenced by it. I was into Pynchon early on- I remember seeing a New York Times review of V. when it first came out- I was just a kid- and thinking, Boy, that sounds like some really weird shit!”
― William Gibson

“Параноята е чесънът в кухнята на живота, винаги можеш да сложиш още малко, нали?”
― Thomas Pynchon, Bleeding Edge

“Of course it happened. Of course it didn't happen.”
― Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow

“In Africa, Asia, Amerindia, Oceania, Europe came and established its order of Analysis and Death. What it could not use, it killed or altered. In time the death-colonies grew strong enough to break away. But the impulse to empire, the mission to propagate death, the structure of it, kept on. Now we are in the last phase. American Death has come to occupy Europe. It has learned empire from its old metropolis. But now we have only the structure left us, none of the great rainbow plumes, no fittings of gold, no epic marches over alkali seas. The savages of other continents, corrupted but still resisting in the name of life, have gone on despite everything... while Death and Europe are separate as ever, their love still unconsummated. Death only rules here.”
― Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow

“Kekulému se zdá o Velkém hadovi, který drží v tlamě svůj vlastní ocas, snící Had, který obklopuje Svět. Ale ta lakota, ten cynismus, se kterou tento sen bude využit. Had, který oznamuje „Svět je uzavřená věc, cyklická, rezonující, věčně se vracející,“ bude doručen do Systému, jehož jediným cílem je narušit Cyklus. Systém, který bere a nevrací, který požaduje, aby se „produktivita“ a „zisky“ v čase neustále zvyšovaly, odčerpává ze zbytku světa obrovské množství energie, aby udržel svůj maličký zoufalý podíl na zisku: a ne jen většina lidstva – ale i většina Světa, zvířat, rostlin a minerálů je v tomto procesu odhozena jako odpad. Systém může a nemusí rozumět tomu, že si pouze kupuje čas. A že čas je především příliš umělý zdroj, který nemá cenu pro nikoho jiného kromě Systému, jenž dříve nebo později musí ztroskotat a zahynout, až jeho závislost na energii překročí množství, které mu svět může poskytnout, a stáhne s sebou nevinné duše na celém řetězci života.”
― Thomas Pynchon

“Roger's heart grows erect, and comes. That's really how it feels. Up sharply to skin level in a V around his centerline, washing over his nipples... it is love, it is amazing.”
― Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow

“- С двете момчета не е същото - кима Максин, - но понякога се чудя какво би било, ако имах дъщеря.
- Ами вземи си роди, още си хлапе.
- Да, лошото е, че и Хорст е. Както и всеки друг, с когото съм излизала.
- О, де да можеше да видиш бившия ми. Сидни. Нестабилни юноши от цялата страна идваха на поклонение до къщи само за да вдишат от издишания от него цигарен дим и да си сверят настройките.
- Той е още...
- Жив и здрав. Ако някога умре, ще е доста неприятно изненадан.”
― Thomas Pynchon, Bleeding Edge

“Is no revenge of the nerds, you know what, last year when everything collapsed, all it meant was the nerds lost out once again and the jocks won. Same as always ... Some of the quants are smart, but quants come, quants go, they're just nerds for hire with a different fashion sense. The jocks may not know a stochastic crossover if it bites them on the ass, but they have that drive to thrive, they're synced in to them deep market rhythms, and that'll always beat out nerditude no matter how smart it gets.”
― Thomas Pynchon, Bleeding Edge

“After one postmodern doorstopper, you’ve read them all. Pynchon got there first, really… and it was good… but most of the others have been pure drivel. Modern life is very complicated and overwhelming and it is advisable to be anxious about it all… Well, obviously!”
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo