Paranoids are not paranoid because they're paranoid, but because they keep putting themselves, fucking idiots, deliberately into paranoid situations.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Paranoids act paranoid because they deliberately create paranoid situations for themselves.
- In plain terms
- They make their own paranoia by choosing risky situations.
- What can you take from it?
- Self‑inflicted circumstances fuel anxiety.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How much of anxiety is self‑generated?
- What habits create paranoid environments?
Another view
External factors can also provoke paranoia.
More from Thomas Pynchon
You hide, they seek.
Permalink to quote #37 There was no difference between the behavior of a god and the operations of pure chance.
Permalink to quote #39 If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers.
Permalink to quote #36
Related quotes
The idea of the paranoid style as a force in politics would have little contemporary relevance or historical value if it were applied only to men with profound…
Richard HofstadterRichard Hofstadter quote #10 Admittedly an unusual state, but not one that can be stigmatized as pathological.
Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud quote #21 Public postures have the configuration of private derangement.
Tom StoppardTom Stoppard quote #33