In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, he describes the central character, thought to represent himself,[6] as being an atypical student, interested in science in itself rather than as a professional career path.

In the course of his studies, Pirsig became intrigued by the multiplicity of putative causes for a given phenomenon, and increasingly focused on the role played by hypotheses in the scientific method and sources from which they originate.

Upon his discharge from the Army, he lived for several months in Seattle, Washington, and then returned to the University of Minnesota, from which he received a bachelor's degree in 1950.

Ostensibly a first-person narrative based on a motorcycle trip he and his young son Chris had taken from Minneapolis to San Francisco, it is an exploration of the underlying metaphysics of Western culture.

[1][11] Pirsig took nearly four years to complete Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, writing most of the book while living above a shoe store in south Minneapolis, while working as a tech writer for Honeywell.

[13] Ultimately, an editor at William Morrow accepted the finished manuscript; when he did, his publisher's internal recommendation stated, "This book is brilliant beyond belief, it is probably a work of genius, and will, I'll wager, attain classic stature.

"[14] In his book review, George Steiner compared Pirsig's writing to Dostoevsky, Broch, Proust, and Bergson, stating that "the assertion itself is valid ... the analogies with Moby-Dick are patent".

A transcript of this talk also appears as the introduction to On Quality: An Inquiry into Excellence, a 2022 book of Pirsig's unpublished and selected writings.

He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and treated with electroconvulsive therapy on numerous occasions,[7] a treatment he discusses in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

In December 2019, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History acquired Pirsig's 1966 Honda CB77 Super Hawk on which the 1968 ride with his son Chris was taken.

The donation included a manuscript of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, a signed first edition of the book, and tools and clothing from the ride.