Daniel replies:

1. I never say. Not that it wasn't a perfectly nice cult, as cults go, but a cult is a cult--sooner or later there are going to be abuses...making everybody drink poison kool-ade or passing the hat to buy a really kickin' car for the guru. I don't want anyone who makes the mistake of thinking I'm smart to do something dumb because I seem to endorse it.
2. Because you are using up alternate hypotheses.
3.Some might say I have already written too many novels, or written the same novel too many times. Only The Neddiad is illustrated throughout because until this one no publisher was creative enough to allow it. We got Calef Brown, which turns out to be about as good as if we'd been able to get Picasso.
4. I think it had to do with some sutra or something--I forget.
5.I hung out at at least one merican ""monastery"" in the 60s, and ran away, (after only one day), from a Japanese monastery. And yes, absolutely, I recommend running away.
6. I will never do you any harm if you remember to ignore what I say. Except this: Purchase--don't anticipate. The publisher should be rewarded for allowing the drawings, and I need my $1.60.