All investigations of Time, however sophisticated or abstract, have at their true base the human fear of mortality.
Thomas PynchonExplosion without an objective', declared Miles Blundell, 'is politics in its purest form'.
Thomas PynchonLosing faith is a complicated business and takes time. There are no epiphanies, no "moments of truth." It takes much thought and concentration in the later phases, which thenselves come about through an accumulation of small accidents: examples of general injustice, misfortune falling upon the godly, prayers of one's own unanswered.
Thomas PynchonShe thougt of sunrise over the library slope at Cornell University that nobody out on it had seen because the slope faces west.
Thomas PynchonI came," she said, "hoping you could talk me out of a fantasy." Cherish it!" cried Hilarious, fiercely. "What else do any of you have? Hold it tightly by it's little tentacle, don't let the Freudians coax it away or the pharmacists poison it out of you. Whatever it is, hold it dear, for when you lose it you go over by that much to the others. You begin to cease to be.
Thomas PynchonBut a few choosing to venture deeper into the painful corridors of their affliction, found after a while that they could now grind and polish ever more exotic surfaces, hyperboloidial and even stranger, eventually including what we must term โimaginaryโ shapes (which some preferred to term invisible).
Thomas Pynchon