Quotes About Douglas Adams

Laser light flickered all over him as if he was a packet of biscuits at a super-market check-out.

Why, how much did you tip him?' Ford named a figure again. 'I don't know how much it is,' said Arthur. 'What's it worth in pounds sterling? What could it buy you?' 'It would probably buy you, roughly... er...' Ford screwed his eyes up as he did some calculations in his head. 'Switzerland,' he said at last.

The reason why it was published in the form of a micro sub-meson electronic component is that if it were printed in normal book form, an interstellar hitchhiker would require several inconveniently large buildings to carry it around

Five to one against and falling …" she said, "four to one against and falling … three to one … two … one … probability factor of one to one … we have normality, I repeat we have normality." She turned her microphone off—then turned it back on— with a slight smile and continued: "Anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem. Please relax. You will be sent for soon.

That sounds perfectly reasonable …" he said in a reassuring tone of voice, wondering who he was trying to reassure.

Oh, and Zaphod? Er, yeah? If you ever find you need help again, you know, if you're in trouble, need a hand out of a tight corner... Yeah? Please don't hesitate to get lost.

Wainwright's Fruit Emporium. Mr Wainwright is not able to take calls at this time since he is not right in the head and thinks he is a cucumber. Thank you for calling.

Sorry, can I interrupt you a moment, Peter, and say that the sofa has just vanished.' 'So it has. Well, that's one mystery less.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy says that if you hold a lungful of air you can survive in the total vacuum of space for about thirty seconds. However, it does go on to say that what with space being the mindboggling size it is the chances of getting picked up by another ship within those thirty seconds are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against.

What have you done to it, Monkeyman? - he breathed. - Well, - said Arthur, - nothing in fact. It's just that I think a short while ago it was trying to work out how to... - Yes? - Make me some tea. - That's right guys, - the computer sang out suddenly, - just coping with that problem right now, and wow, it's a biggy. Be with you in a while. It lapsed back into a silence that was only matched for sheer intensity by the silence of the three people staring at Arthur Dent.

Not only is it a wholly remarkable book, it is also a highly successful one – more popular than The Celestial Home Care Omnibus, better selling than Fifty-three More Things to do in Zero Gravity, and more controversial than Oolon Colluphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters

Your arrival on the planet has caused considerable excitement. It has already been hailed, so I gather, as the third most improbable event in the history of the Universe." "What were the first two?" "Oh, probably just coincidences

Marvin the Paranoid Android

The new bill reads 'To: saving human race from total extinction—no charge.' 

Under law the Quest for Ultimate Truth is quite clearly the inalienable prerogative of your working thinkers. Any bloody machine goes and actually finds it and we're straight out of a job, aren't we?

The bits which did mean anything were often so wonderfully buried that no one could ever spot them slipping past in the avalanche of nonsense.

He had found a Nutri-Matic machine which had provided him with a plastic cup filled with a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has this to say on the subject of flying. There is an art, it says, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss ... Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, which presents the difficulties.

Does the number," said Arthur gently, "forty-two mean anything to you at all?" "What? No, what are you talking about?" exclaimed Fenchurch.

The computer started to sing. "'When you walk through the storm …'" it whined nasally, "'hold your head up high …'" Zaphod screamed at it to shut up, but his voice was lost in the din of what they quite naturally assumed was approaching destruction.

The man was awake but not glad to be.

Hi! I hope you enjoyed that Introduction to this Introduction to the New Edition. I know that some of you may think it unimportant that Douglas's final volume should have the distinction of a World Record of this sort. But, as a friend, I often felt that Douglas was sadly shortchanged in the matter of Introductions.

Only six people in the Galaxy knew that the job of the Galactic President was not to wield power but to attract attention away from it. Zaphod

But what about the End of the Universe? We'll miss the big moment." "I've seen it. It's rubbish," said Zaphod, "nothing but a gnab gib." "A what?" "Opposite of a big bang.