Travis Bickle

"Loneliness has followed me my whole life, everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man."

Voltaire said that if God did not exist we would have to invent him. If Travis Bickle didn't exist we would invent him, whether we wanted to or not.

For God's a lonely man. God is a transcendental being, not to be found in the world of experience. Neither can the soul which is also transcendental.

Man's also a lonely being, because he has a soul. No amount of searching will ever determine its nature or purpose. Ultimate purpose itself is transcendental.

Loneliness has followed me my entire life. It is fundamental to understanding the world, by keeping us apart from it.

Denying thinghood to God and the soul protects them from encroachment by the sensualists. But it makes us very lonely, as we will never find them in the world.


"You got no choice, anyway. I mean we're all fucked. More or less, you know?"