“You will begin to touch heaven, Jonathan, in the moment that you touch perfect speed. And that isn’t flying a thousand miles an hour, or a million, or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit, and perfection doesn’t have limits. Perfect speed, my son, is being there.”

American writer

Richard David Bach is an American writer known for fiction and nonfiction shaped by flight. He became widely known in the 1970s through Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, both of which were major bestsellers. His writing often returns to flying, freedom, and the search for meaning. Bach’s work brought together adventure, spirituality, and reflection, and those themes helped make his books especially popular with a broad readership.