It was the heart of any scam or fiddle -- keep the punter uncertain, or, if he is certain, make him certain of the wrong thing.

I was just a kid then. But I won't forget. Nor will others. There's lots of people with reason to hate the Church.

But the purpose of the book is not the horror, it is horror's defeat.

I thought unicorns were more . . . Fluffy.

It's hard to be famous and alive.

The point is that if a book that had been published three years ago started to sell twice as many all of a sudden it probably wouldn't even get no­ticed. People wouldn't be tracking it. The system has cleaned up its act an awful lot but the best-seller list system is not an entirely foolproof thing.

At least I know I'm bewildered about the really fundamental and important facts of the universe.