Pynchon wrote all night, slept all day, and kept mostly to himself. When he didnāt write, he readāmainly Latin American writers like Jorge Luis Borges, a big influence on his second novel, The Crying of Lot 49. His odd writing habits persisted throughout his life; later, when he was in the throes of a chapter, heād live off junk food (and sometimes pot). Heād cover the windows with black sheets, never answer the door, and avoid anything that smelled of obligation.
