[T]he relentless note of incipient hysteria, the invitation to panic, the ungrounded scenarios--the overwhelming and underlying desire for something truly terrible to happen so that you could have something really hot to talk about--was still startling. We call disasters unimaginable, but all we do is imagine such things. That, you could conclude mordantly, is the real soundtrack of our time: the amplification of the self-evident toward the creation of paralyzing, preëmptive paranoia.

I told myself: 'I am surrounded by unknown things.' I imagined man without ears, suspecting the existence of sound as we suspect so many hidden mysteries, man noting acoustic phenomena whose nature and provenance he cannot determine. And I grew afraid of everything around me – afraid of the air, afraid of the night. From the moment we can know almost nothing, and from the moment that everything is limitless, what remains? Does emptiness actually not exist? What does exist in this apparent emptiness?

Fear of vikings build castles.

I guess I should say a little bit about my method - I really am a fence sitter. I *loathe* Science and am always keen to attack it in most situations, though not here, because I love Reason and I'm perfectly aware of the difference. I also know what a concept means like Rules of Evidence. I'm not sure that's a concept as widely circulated in these circles as it needs to be - in other words, how *do* you tell shit from shinola? That's very critical. I think reason can only take us a certain distance, and then we have to go with the divine imagination, but with all safety systems fully in operation, or the divine imagination will lead us into complete paranoia.

I tend to interpret that whole 'everyone's wife is a Mossad agent' thing in a more sort of metaphorical way--that people you're intimate with might be, like, 'double agents,' y'know? It's a weird kind of paranoia you get about people you love--that they might turn out to be completely different from who you think they are, that it's all been some sort of diabolically patient plot against you. I think that's a pretty normal fear you have in any serious relationship. And that's why it's such a popular part of the epic, because so many people can relate to that fear. But personally, I don't really worry about it too much.

Behind the hieroglyphic streets there would either be a transcendent meaning, or only the earth.

My parents are going to kill me!That seems rather harsh...

This is a mournful discovery.1)Those who agree with you are insane2)Those who do not agree with you are in power.

I am a kind of paranoid in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.

Even paranoids have real enemies.

A paranoid is a man who knows a little of what's going on.

I am a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.

I envy paranoids; they actually feel people are paying attention to them.

A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on.

To the man who is afraid everything rustles.

I'm a tad paranoid. I think the person in front of me is following me the long way round.

Paranoia is knowing all the facts.

I moved to New York for health reasons. I'm paranoid and New York is the only place where my fears are justified.

Sometimes I get the feeling that the whole world is against me, but deep down I know that's not true. Some of the smaller countries are neutral.

When everyone is out to get you, paranoia is only good thinking.