The citation about God's Final Message to His Creation is not literally -- it comes from Chapter 40 of So long, and Thanks for All the Fish, the fourth book of the trilogy in five parts "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams (1952-2001). For those interested, the relevant part of the text of that Chapter follows below.

Chapter 40

There remains little still to tell.
      Beyond what used to be known as the Limitless Lightfields of Flanux until the Grey Binding Fiefdoms of Saxaquine were discovered lying behind them, lie the Grey Binding Fiefdoms of Saxaquine. Within the Grey Binding Fiefdoms of Saxaquine lies the star named Zarss, around which orbits the planet Preliumtarn in which is the land of Sevorbeupstry, and it was to the land of Sevorbeupstry that Arthur and Fenchurch came at last, a little tired by the journey.
      And in the land of Sevorbeupstry, they came to the Great Red Plain of Rars, which was bounded on the South side by the Quentulus Quazgar Mountains, on the further side of which, according to the dying words of Prak, they would find in thirty- foot-high letters of fire God's Final Message to His Creation.
      According to Prak, if Arthur's memory saved him right, the place was guarded by the Lajestic Vantrashell of Lob, and so, after a manner, it proved to be. He was a little man in a strange hat and he sold them a ticket.
      "Keep to the left, please," he said, "keep to the left," and hurried on past them on a little scooter.
      They realized they were not the first to pass that way, for the path that led around the left of the Great Plain was well-worn and dotted with booths. At one they bought a box of fudge, which had been baked in an oven in a cave in the mountain, which was heated by the fire of the letters that formed God's Final Message to His Creation. At another they bought some postcards. The letters had been blurred with an airbrush, "so as not to spoil the Big Surprise!" it said on the reverse.
      "Do you know what the message is?" they asked the wizened little lady in the booth.
      "Oh yes," she piped cheerily, "oh yes!"
      She waved them on.

 
.... skipping a bit ....

 
They rounded the foot of the Quentulus Quazgar Mountains, and there was the Message written in blazing letters along the crest of the Mountain. There was a little observation vantage point with a rail built along the top of a large rock facing it, from which you could get a good view. It had a little pay-telescope for looking at the letters in detail, but no one would ever use it because the letters burned with the divine brilliance of the heavens and would, if seen through a telescope, have severely damaged the retina and optic nerve.
      They gazed at God's Final Message in wonderment, and were slowly and ineffably filled with a great sense of peace, and of final and complete understanding.
      Fenchurch sighed. "Yes," she said, "that was it."
      They had been staring at it for fully ten minutes before they became aware that Marvin, hanging between their shoulders, was in difficulties. The robot could no longer lift his head, had not read the message. They lifted his head, but he complained that his vision circuits had almost gone.
      They found a coin and helped him to the telescope. He complained and insulted them, but they helped him look at each individual letter in turn, The first letter was a "w", the second an "e". Then there was a gap. An "a" followed, then a "p", an "o" and an "l".
      Marvin paused for a rest.
      After a few moments they resumed and let him see the "o", the "g", the "i", the "s" and the "e".
      The next two words were "for" and "the". The last one was a long one, and Marvin needed another rest before he could tackle it.
      It started with an "i", then "n" then a "c". Next came an "o" and an "n", followed by a "v", an "e", another "n" and an "i".
      After a final pause, Marvin gathered his strength for the last stretch.
      He read the "e", the "n", the "c" and at last the final "e", and staggered back into their arms.
      "I think," he murmured at last, from deep within his corroding rattling thorax, "I feel good about it."
      The lights went out in his eyes for absolutely the very last time ever.
      Luckily, there was a stall nearby where you could rent scooters from guys with green wings.

The five books of the Hitch Hiker's Guide trilogy are:

  1. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979)
  2. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980)
  3. Life, The Universe and Everyting (1982)
  4. So long, and Thanks for All the Fish (1984)
  5. Mostly Harmless (1992)
Interesting background information on these works and their origin can be found in the book Don't panic -- Douglas Adams and The Hitch Hiker's Guid to the Galaxy by Neil Gaiman (1987, 1993)

There is certainly a lot about Douglas Noel Adams (1952-2001) and his Hitch Hiker's Guide on the Web and can be found easily with search engines, or you can start from http://www.douglasadams.com/.

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last modified: 9 April 2003