Last Chance to See

I loved your book Last Chance to See; do you have plans for writing anything similar in the future?
Anders Sølvberg

I would love to write another such book. I don't know when I'll have the opportunity though. Having a small child makes me very disinclined to leave home for long periods. That's all for now. Thank you very much for all your questions. If there are any more questions you'd like to ask, please vist my website at www.douglasadams.com where I regularly answer as many questions as I can understand. Also, please visit www.h2g2.com where we are busy trying to build a hitchhikers guide to the real world. Come and help us!
Douglas

Carl Sagan

A man by the name Carl Sagan once said "If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe." When I first heard that quote I thought it was yours. Have you ever read anything of him?
Stian

I have read quite a few of his books. I didn't know that particular quote, but I like it!
Douglas

"Won a price for it"

Dear Mr. Adams, I read the HHG trilogy when it first came out and hugely enjoyed it. How did you come up with the idea that the designer of the Norwegian coastline won a price for it? -Kolbjørn
Kolbjørn Halvorsen

By sitting there and thinking of it.
Douglas

Microscopic or macroscopic?

The science of sizes, fascinates me. How big/small are we humans? Is the whole universe really a microscopic point in another, beyond-belief, existence? Where are the borders on either side, and is the universe limited? Can you answer this question in three sentences...
Kurt Ringmo

No
Douglas

What's up?

Hi, Mr. Adams. I was just wondering where in the States you are from, and where did you go to school? I am currently a student at BYU, Utah. Love your books!!
Oystein Rognerud

I'm actually from that well known american state known as England. In fact, we - that is me and my family - have just moved from London to Santa Barbara, California.
Douglas

Stand by your Mac?

Are you still using a MacIntosh, or have you converted to Windows?
Håvard Houen

I am a very avid Macintosh user. More so now than ever! I am delighted at the complete renaissance that is happening to the Macintosh platform.
Douglas

Religion

Jeg har lest halve trilogien din, og elsker den. Jeg skjønner ikke hvor du tar den geniale fantasien din ifra? Jeg har lagt merke til at du kommer med en del ironiske spark til kristendommen. Du har også skrevet "The Prostitute in the Family Tree : Discovering Humor and Irony in the Bible" (som jeg ikke har lest) - det jeg lurer på er, hva du selv egentlig tror på?
Bernt Drange

First of all, and this is terribly important, I am not the author of 'The prostitue in the family tree'. It was written by another author whose name appears to be Douglas Adams. Not me. My own views on religion are quite simple. I am a radical atheist, or if you like, a Dawkinsist atheist. if you go to my website - www.douglasadams.com - you will find somewhere a pointer to an interview I did for a website called American Atheist where you'll find a lot more explanation of my views.
Douglas

man - woman

If a man says something in the woods and there is no woman around, is he still wrong?
Jonny B

Yes, in my experience.
Douglas

Subliminal messages

Considering your devoted readers, have you ever tried putting subliminal messages in the text just to see what would happen to them? For instance; every time I´ve read one of your books, I´ve instantly got an irresistible desire to lay down on a patch of green grass and look at the sky... Am I on to something?
Arne M. Jakobsen

No.
Douglas

Gullivers Travels

You weren'y by any chance inspired by Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" when you wrote the Guide??? (or "War of the worlds", or "1984", or "Brave new world"?)
Jostein Søvik

I think I was inspired to a certain extent by Gullivers Travels, though of course I have never actually read it. Gullivers Travels itself was to a certain extent inspired by a Pilgrim's Progress which was in turn inspired by medieval mystery plays. In other words, the 'innocent abroad' form has a long history.
Douglas

H2G2

heya - again What do you think of the H2G2 Project on the web? Regards, --K
Kyrre G Laastad

It's a thing thats going to happen in several stages. At the moment we are in a community building phase. We will move it forward bit by bit until it becomes a real collaborative guidance system. That will depend on continually developing software systems and also further developments in small mobile computers. We have got a long way to go, but I think we have made a good start.
Douglas

Gone with the Solar Wind?

If you had been the person that wrote the sequel to "Gone with the Wind", how would the story go?
Goram Echlam

I don't know, but I expect the world would blow up somewhere along the line. By the way: I really meant it when I said I didn't want any more questions about 42. Please, just let it go.
Douglas

THHGTTG the movie

When is The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy movie finished? And who is going to play Arthur, Ford and Trillian???
Stian

The movie will be finished when its done. Ford and trillian I really don't know at the moment. I very much hope that Arthur will be Hugh Laurie. Of course I wish that it was possible to use a lot of the original cast. Unfortunately the fact that the movie is being made twenty years after the original makes that a bit of a problem.
Douglas

Have you stopped writing books

Have you stopped writing books, are computetgames all you do nowadays?
Anitra Lykke

No, not at all. But I wanted a long pause to do some other things, like write a computer game and have a child. It's just been a prolonged midlife crisis. I now have lots and lots of story ideas that I hope to be turning into novels and - I hope - movies over the next few years.
Douglas

Naked.

Did you have second thoughts about letting Terry Jones write "Starship Titanic", when he had to write it while being naked?
Sverre

No, I insisted that he should write it naked.
Douglas

The end?

Does the Hitchiker's story really end at Stvromula Beta? Or has something slightly unexpected happened (as seen before) that will ensure a new Hitchiker's book? I, for one, would be very pleased. JOS
Jostein

Hitchhiker is fiction. Not only that, it's science fiction, not only that, it's comedy science fiction. What do you mean by 'really'?
Douglas

What is it about Norway?

Dear Mr. Adams, you must have a "thing" for Norway. In THGTTG you have Slahti Bartfast make the norwegian fjords. Dirk Gently investigates matters related to norse mythology, involving Thor and Odin. And, in Startship Titanic _norwegians_ and other Monty Pythons fans are referred to such and such websites. So, what's the "thing"?
Roar Steen

You live here. You tell me.
Douglas

Trilogy in motion

Is your trilogy going to be even more innaccurate - i.e. do you plan antother volume in the series (after "Mostly Harmless" - the last I read). If not - what is your plans. Also; how many books have your written 'bout Dirk? BRGDS Edvard "Marvin" H.
Edvard

There may be another hitchhiker book at some point. It turns out that I have a lot of material and ideas that could go into one, but I have other books I want to write in the meantime. And I think that a future hitchhiker book might well be dependent on the sucess of the hitchhiker movie. There are only two Dirk Gently books (by the way, it's Gently, not Gentry).
Douglas

42?

Why 42? Why not 39 or 14. Do you like this particular number? Or is it in fact the number of roads a man must walk down?
Sverre

I have officially retired from the business of explaining what I meant by 42. It was just a joke. End of story.
Douglas

Dirk Gentry

Will there be any more books about the holistic detective. My absolute favourite private eye.
Judith Heskestad

Im not sure. I did start to write another one, but I just couldn't get it to work properly, and abandoned it.So that doesn't bode well. However, there is a film project of Dirk lurking in the wings, and if that works out then it may well be that I feel inspired to do another novel based on him.
Douglas

Marvin

Where did you find the inspiration for a pathetic yet hillarious character like Marvin?
Dagfinn Krog

It was actually based on someone I know who is another comedy writer, but the interesting thing is that most comedy writers are like that.
Douglas

Programming.

Do you do any programming? If yes, what language?
Erik Berglund

I used to do some programming, to be more specific, I should say scripting. I became apedt at writing Hypercard scripts of enormous complexity. I also used to read C manuals on long airplane trips. I guess that makes me a pretty sad case.
Douglas