My response

I have here my answer to Sammy's challenge. I tried to do this with as little narcissism (not that I find anything wrong with narcissism) as possible, but I'm not sure how well I managed. All of the below are quotes about Douglas Adams, with whom I find myself to be very much alike in terms of personality, from the introductions to the book dedicated to his memory, The Salmon of Doubt. It was reading his work that inspired me to begin writing, and if I can aspire to be anywhere near as good a writer as he was there is no measure to how happy I would be.

He treats writing as a performance art... He needs an instant audience to bounce things off

He has a passion for technology, but has never really been the (stereotypical) nerdy science-fiction type. He is relaxed, gregarious, and a solidly built two meters tall. In fact, he has more the air of those English public-school boys who became rock stars in the 1970s

It was an epihanous moment for him when he discovered that being funny could be a way in which intelligent people expressed themselves--"and be very, very silly at the same time"

"I love deadlines," he has said. "I love the wooshing noise they make as they go by"