Hubbard set up the Church of Scientology in Hollywood in 1954 for a reason. He understood that celebrity was increasingly a feature of American public life, and celebrities themselves were going to be worshiped as minor deities were in the ancient world. The idea was: if you could get them, think how many people would follow.

Quote by Lawrence Wright

Alfred A.
In the New World: Growing up in America 1964-1984. The New Yorker 86 (28): 47–48.

Wright is best known as the author of the 2006 nonfiction book The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11.