I saw this documentary on IFC about Harlan Ellison, the writer. I only knew him as a sci-fi writer, but apparently he wrote all kinds of things and was quite the bon vivant in his younger days.
He was short, skinny little Jewish guy and wore glasses, and to keep from being picked on while in the military, he would help his fellow GI's compose letters to their girlfriends. He says that even as a teenager, he knew he was smarter than anybody else in the neighborhood and could do anything. What chutzpah!
He lives in a house in California overlooking a valley and in the distance are the San Bernadino mountains. His house is wonderful--the outside is faced with friezes like ancient Aztez ruins. His temperament is still ego driven and ebullient--his wife tells of him once locking her out of the house while she was naked and alarming the neighbors as she screamed to be let back in.
He is a rotund little package of an aging man now; totally entertaining and flamboyant. He can't abide ignorant stupid people, and I don't recall the exact  quote about religion, but says he is an atheist and the universe rolls on without the slightest notice of us. He does his writing on typewriters and is notorious for missed deadlines laid out by publishers.
I'm gonna gave to google him to see if he's still alive, since I didn't  see when this documentary was made, but glad I got to see it.
susil