Quotes from Lawrence Wright

There was a saying, "After drugs, there's Scientology," and it was true that many who were drawn to the religion had taken hallucinogens and were open to alternative realities. Recruits

The first is that it directly infects the endothelial cells that line our blood vessels. I'm not aware of any other respiratory viruses that do this. This causes a lot of havoc.

There are three things this virus is doing that blow me away," said Brooks, marveling at the resourcefulness and agility of his adversary. "The first is that it directly infects the endothelial cells that line our blood vessels. I'm not aware of any other respiratory viruses that do this. This causes a lot of havoc.

The second surprise was hypercoagulability—a pronounced tendency to develop blood clots.

By now night had fully occupied the sky, which was splattered with stars that seemed merely a few feet away. I can see why religions are born in the desert, Henry said. Yes, we have this problem, Majid said. God is always on top of us.

And the last one is this hyperimmune response," said Brooks. Infectious diseases frequently kill by triggering an excessive immune-system response.

Howard Markel estimates that the total number of Americans who died of the 1918 pandemic was between 500,000 and 750,000; the

an old Zen proverb: "When the master points at the Moon, many people never see it at all, they only look at the master.

Hatred is so much easier than reconciliation; no sacrifices or compromises are required.

If the infected organism survived, it sometimes retained a portion of the viral material in its own genome. The legacy of ancient infections might be found in as much as 8 percent of the human genome, including the genes that controlled memory formation, the immune system, and cognitive development.

Both sides had entered the war already weakened by the disease, and just as in 1918, armies propagated the contagion. Hospitals, already overfilled by flu victims, were unable to treat more than a fraction of the wounded. And yet the war raged on, pulling both countries and their neighbors back into the pre-industrial world. Little was left of modernity except for weapons.

Because David's mother, Loretta, refused to sign up for that, she and Ron agreed to divorce. She continued in Scientology, rising to the summit as an OT VIII. She worked as an accountant for the law firm of Greta Van Susteren, the television commentator, and her husband, John Coale, both Scientologists, who maintain a mansion on Clearwater Beach.

This age of terror will end one day, but whether our society can restore the feeling of freedom that once was our birthright is hard to predict.

I don't want to constantly be writing about terrorism and strife.

If you look at all those terrorist groups - I'm talking, going back, Hezbollah, Hamas, al-Nusra, al-Qaeda, ISIS - they're all proxy armies in an Islamic civil war.

I was in Austin on 9/11, and there were no flights, so I couldn't get to New York to cover the story, so I had to find more creative ways.

In places where money comes out of the ground, luck and a willingness to take risks are the main denominators that determine one's future, not talent or education or hard work. Money that is so easily acquired somehow comes to seem well deserved, because those who have it must be either uniquely perspicacious or divinely favored.

When the price of oil goes up, the entire Texas economy takes a deep breath. Millionaires blossom like rain lilies. News races through the countryside that the money train is pulling into the station. Hop on board!

For my parents, leaving the close social quarters of Abilene was like getting out of jail. They were not true West Texans; they had not come to love the unending monotony of mesquite barrens or the high, hot blue sky that made sunsets a matter of prayerful thankfulness.

Certainly, the two things Scientology has on its side are money and lawyers, but those qualities won't save it if it can't find a way to bring new members into the fold.

From the very beginning, when you go into Scientology your world narrows down very quickly.

To me the notion that Palestinians are actually Jews is, I think, quite revelatory and very radical and a possible bridge that has been ignored, I think, in this entire controversy and there's ample evidence to support it.

If you get into Scientology, you will go to auditing. It's like therapy except that there is an E-meter between you and your auditor. That's a device that actually measures your galvanic skin responses. It's two metal cans that you hold. They used to be Campbell's Soup cans with the label scraped off.

If you look at Mormonism, it's a very appealing community. It takes care of itself; there are active charities. It's got a successful work ethic. Whatever you might think about the authenticity of their theology or their history, it's immaterial in terms of how the religion itself actually functions.