Religion obviously played a role in this book and the previous book, too.

Nonetheless, do I have respect for people who believe in the hereafter? Of course I do. I might add, perhaps even a touch of envy too, because of the solace.

Last year I picked up the New York Times and there was a story about a kid from Dartmouth who was bragging that he never left his room, and made dates and ordered pizza with his computer. The piece de resistance of this story was that he had two roommates, and he was proud of the fact that he only talked to them by computer.

All you need in life is truth and beauty and you can find both at the Public Library.

If solace is any sort of succor to someone, that is sufficient. I believe in the faith of people, whatever faith they may have.

I think it's realistic to have hope. One can be a perverse idealist and say the easiest thing: 'I despair. The world's no good.' That's a perverse idealist. It's practical to hope, because the hope is for us to survive as a human species. That's very realistic.

The answer is to say 'No!' to authority when authority is wrong.