Luke Rhinehart

Part of the philosophy of 'The Dice Man' is that you have got to be laughing at yourself at every moment and be free of yourself at every moment.

In 1965, I was teaching a seminar on freedom when I told my students that the ultimate freedom lay in casting a dice to decide what to do. They were so shocked and fascinated that I knew I had to write the book.

When I was a young man, barely 18, I discovered Jesus Christ as my personal saviour, and for six months I told my mother she was damned to hell. That wasn't much fun. I abandoned it.

The thing the Buddhists and the Sufis have in common is a belief that religious certainties are destructive.

Those who believe that they have absolute truth and the only moral system are destructive both to themselves and to those whom they try to convert.

I am George Cockcroft. But when I come to England or Europe, where the name Luke Rhinehart is better known, then I use that name.

'The Dice Man' is an anti-establishment cult novel, and you don't normally make studio films from such dark comedy material.