Pynchon talks about Don B.

[Mark Kohut]

He was "prevented from becoming a world-class curmudgeon on the order of,
say, Ambrose Bierce, by the stubborn counter-rhythms of what kept on being
a hopeful and unbitter heart", Pynchon says. A "tenderness and geniality"
always "shine through" whenever Don "drops the irony, even for a minute."

During the 70s, Pynchon lived in the Sales basement apartment, below Don,
when the Sales were away. Hw wrote parts of Gravity's Rainbow there. As he came to know Don, he was impressed by Don's neighborliness. "[don] disliked being alone, preferring company, however problematical, to no company," Pynchon recalled. The two men hit it off. They shared a quick wit.  Karen Kennerly says that one morning, Pynchon called don and said, "I've just put the cat in the refrigerator. do you think that is a problem? On another day, he sent Don a note saying he'd thought he'd spotted Don walking around the Village, but he didn't approach him "on the off-chance it was Solzhenitsyn."