"Just because you're paranoid..." (1974)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Having taught _Catch-22_ to juniors and seniors a half-dozen times, I'm fairly sure that the quote does not appear in that book.

  (HA !  I'm right !  An Amazon search fails to find even the word "paranoid" in _Catch-22_! )

  The version I remember hearing first - or seeing on a button - was, I believe, "Even paranoids have real enemies."  I'd say that was around 1976.

  JL

Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Bapopik at AOL.COM
Subject: Re: "Just because you're paranoid..." (1974)
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FWIW. This from STUMPERS (2002):
...
The quotation "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean people aren't out
to get you" (or variants thereof) is sometimes attributed to Joseph Heller
in Catch-22 or to Woody Allen in Take the Money and Run. Is anyone
willing to look through Catch-22 or otherwise offer information on the
origin of this saying?

Fred Shapiro

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