The three religions because I wanted to discuss faith, not organized religion, so wanted to relativize organized religion by having Pi practice three. I would have like PI to be a Jew, too, to practice Judaism, but there are two religions that are explicitly incompatible: Christianity and Judaism. Where one begins, the other ends, according to Christians, and where one endures, the other strays, according to Jews.

That's what fiction is about, isn't it, the selective transforming of reality? The twisting of it to bring out its essence?

You bring joy and pain in equal measure. Joy because you are with me, but pain because it wont be for long.

I have a story that will make you believe in God.

He's a shy man. Life has taught him not to show off what is most precious to him.

Just as art brings you to another place, so does religion - and to ask questions of factuality tends to reduce both. If you say you were inspired by a novel, that implies that your book is a work of fiction.

Life is an interpretation of a series of facts, and that interpretation is really what life is about. So the division between non-fiction and fiction has a certain logic, but it's a very limited one. And by and large, it isn't helpful.