We are so accustomed to think of religion as a thing between individual men and God that we can hardly enter into the idea of a religion in which a whole nation in its national organisation appears as the religious unit. – William Robertson Smith
Most modern science fiction went to school on Dune. Even Harry Potter with its boy protagonist who has not yet grown into his destiny shares a common theme. When I read it for the first time, I felt like I had learned another language, mastered a new culture, adopted a new religion. – Gary Ross