Dan Brown talks religion & technology at Web Summit

American author Dan Brown is one of the Web Summit highlights from today, not here to promote a new book but to discuss the conflict between religion and technology.
"I don't say yes to a lot of invitations," he explained, "but when I got the invitation for the Web Summit, I said yes immediately. Because I believe technology will change our future as much as all the religious and spiritual leaders combined."
For years the conflict between religions and science has been the subject for many lively debates, and of course at the Web Summit it's no different.
With The Da Vinci Code, Brown wrote one of the most controversial books of this century and he has always been a great supporter of science. With Robert Langdon, he created a character to voice his own opinions.
"Religion and science are two different languages trying to tell the same story." Whether or not you agree with him, he has sold millions of books.
He can't tell us when we might expect the next one:
"If everything goes well it might be another year and a half, if not it could take five years, but believe me the next book is much much closer than five years."
What we do know is that Robert Langdon will be back.
Having written his first book when he was five years old, he now has a very strict routine, getting up at four in the morning to start writing.
"I have two reasons for doing that, one being that by getting up that early I make it a priority. It's the first thing I do every morning, so it's really important. The second reason is that I believe it's a thin veil between the dream state and the writing state.|
Talking about self-publishing, he thinks the new technologies such as e-books are fantastic, although he won't ever go down that road.
"I must admit I don't know enough about marketing, so I don't know if it would be better for me, but my relationship with my publishers is sacred. I will never break that."
It doesn't take long for the conversation to go to religion, the abuse in the Church being one of the first topics.
"It is heartbreaking what happened, but I'm not surprised. The Church is made of people and people are flawed, so the Church is flawed."
The tricky question of what his favourite book is, brings a surprising answer:
"I have to say the Christian Bible is a source of interest and fascination for me. Just because a big part of the population sees it as the divine truth.'
His success didn't come overnight, having written three books before The Da Vinci Code took off. He believes luck is crucial.
"Those three weren't really selling and then after The Da Vinci Code, they sold millions of copies and I didn't even change a word.'