# Quote — Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49

> You don’t understand,” getting mad. “You guys, you’re like Puritans are about the Bible. So hung up with words, words. You know where that play exists, not in that file cabinet, not in any paperback you’re looking for, but—” a hand emerged from the veil of shower-steam to indicate his suspended head—“in here. That’s what I’m for. To give the spirit flesh. The words, who cares? They’re rote noises to hold line bashes with, to get past the bone barrier around an actor’s memory, right? But the reality is in this head. Mine. I’m the projector at the planetarium, all the closed little universe visible in the circle of that stage is coming out of my mouth, eyes, sometimes other orifices also.

- Author: [Thomas Pynchon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon.md)
- Book: [The Crying of Lot 49](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon/the-crying-of-lot-49.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Pynchon#The_Crying_of_Lot_49_(1966)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon/the-crying-of-lot-49/you-dont-understand

## More from this book

> Teamwork," Koteks snarled, "is one word for it, yeah. What it really is is a way to avoid responsibility. It's a symptom of the gutlessness of the whole society.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon/the-crying-of-lot-49/teamwork-koteks-snarled.md)

> You know what a miracle is. Not what Bakunin said. But another world’s intrusion into this one. Most of the time we coexist peacefully, but when we do touch there’s cataclysm.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon/the-crying-of-lot-49/you-know-what.md)

> "Whenever I put the headsets on now," he'd continued, "I really do understand what I find there. When those kids sing about 'She loves you,' yeah, well, you know, she does, she's any number of people, all over the world, back through time, different colors, shapes, sizes, distances from death, but she loves. And the 'you' is everybody. And herself."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon/the-crying-of-lot-49/whenever-i-put.md)