# help me with this book quote, please **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 9, 2005, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-with-this-book-quote-please/316350 "2005-08-09T22:28:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lhovis73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecd19e/32.png) [@lhovis73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lhovis73)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-with-this-book-quote-please/316350/1 "2005-08-09T22:28:01Z")
I was just reading the “mind-boggling movie quote” thread and that made me want to lay the following quote on y’all to see if you could help me identify the BOOK that it comes from. Actually, not a quote, but a joke… A character in a novel reports that whenever he feels lost while driving his car, he just looks for another car that looks like it knows where it’s going, and he follows that car… Over the years, I’ve told myself this a million times (when I’m lost, I think, “I’ll just follow that guy, he looks like he knows where he’s going…ha ha…”). But the source of this is long-gone to me. My guess is that it comes from a jokey sort of book, like Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy…in which case someone will be able to enlighten me immediately, I expect. That’s just a guess, though… Does this ring a bell for anyone? ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-with-this-book-quote-please/316350/2 "2005-08-09T22:33:38Z")
I believe that’s from “The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.” ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-with-this-book-quote-please/316350/3 "2005-08-09T22:34:05Z")
> [@lhovis73](#): > > Does this ring a bell for anyone? Yep. It’s from one of the Dirk Gently books by Douglas Adams–I think it might be “The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.” ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-with-this-book-quote-please/316350/4 "2005-08-09T22:35:21Z")
> [@winterhawk11](#): > > Yep. It’s from one of the Dirk Gently books by Douglas Adams–I think it might be “The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.” Rats! **pinkfreud** beat me to the draw! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-with-this-book-quote-please/316350/5 "2005-08-09T22:37:39Z")
Yep. Page 35, [The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671742515/102-4829995-8512119?v=glance): “…he had a tremendous propensity for getting lost when driving. This was largely because of his ‘Zen’ method of navigation, which was simply to find any car that looked as if it knew where it was going and follow it.” ---
**Author:** ![lhovis73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecd19e/32.png) [@lhovis73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lhovis73)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-with-this-book-quote-please/316350/6 "2005-08-09T22:41:15Z")
I haven’t actually read that book…but we did rent the books-on-tapes once, at a Flying J’s, for a road trip, back in 1992… Well, thanks, all…you’ve solved a 13-year-old mystery in five minutes!