Douglas Noël Adams was an English author, comic radio dramatist, and musician. He is best known as author of the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series. "Hitchhiker's" began on radio, and developed into a "trilogy" of five books (which sold more than fifteen million copies during his lifetime) as well as a television series, a towel, a comic book series, a computer game and a feature film that was completed after Adams' death. Wikipedia
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Douglas Adams. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Adams
In honour of Douglas' memory, Biota.org presents the transcript of his speech at Digital Biota 2, held at Magdelene College Cambridge, in September 1998. www.biota.org/people/douglasadams/
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
"If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands."
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."
"Arthur hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction there and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife."
"He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it."