This, according to Douglas Adams, was the answer to life, the universe and everything. Which, in his gentle zany way, was a subtle reminder that if we weren't getting answers we could understand, we were probably asking the wrong questions.

When Douglas Adams died, I carried a towel around Manhattan because it was the most important thing a man could have. When an alien fleet planned to invade earth, it made a slight miscalculation regarding the size of things in their galaxy versus the size of things in ours, which resulted in their entire alien armada of battleships being eaten by a small dog. When a horse appeared in the bathroom of Professor Urban "Reg" Chronitis, I was there to laugh. When I needed to fake speaking Spanish, I went to Babel Fish.

Douglas Adams, it is ludicrous to take anything so seriously that you can't, on another day, laugh about it.

Here are my favorite 16 Douglas Adams quotes:

1. Humans are not proud of their ancestors, and rarely invite them round to dinner.
2. I love deadlines, especially the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
3. In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.
4. In those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri.
5. It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.
6. It is no coincidence that in no known language does the phrase 'As pretty as an Airport' appear.
7. The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.
8. There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
9. Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.
10. You live and learn. At any rate, you live.
11. Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
12. The last time anybody made a list of the top hundred character attributes of New Yorkers, common sense snuck in at number 79.
13. He felt that his life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it.
14. Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.
15. The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.
16. Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.