River was Right: Wisdom from "Firefly"

[River sits at the dining table. Book's bible is open in front of her, and she scribbles furiously into it, crossing out words, writing in the margins. Book walks in, speaks from across the room.]

Book: What are we up to, sweetheart?

River: Fixing your bible.

Book: I - uh - What?

River: Bible's broken. Contradictions, faulty logistics - it doesn't make sense...

[Now Book sees what she's doing. His bible's all fucked up, and there's a small stack of torn-out pages next to it.]

Book: No, no, you can't...

[River's still scribbling away as she chatters manically.]

River: So we'll integrate non-progressional evolution theory with God's creation of Eden - eleven inherent metaphoric parallels already there...Eleven, important number, prime number, one goes into the house of eleven eleven times but aways comes out one -

Book: River, just take it easy. You shouldn't -

River: Noah's Ark is a problem -

[She flips a page back and forth, frowning at it.]

Book: Really.

River: (rapid nod) We'll have to call it early quantum state phenomenon - only way to fit five-thousand species of mammal on the same boat.

[She tears the page out of the book.]

Book: Gimme that!

[Book snatches the bible up, somewhat possessively.]

Book: River! You don't need to fix the bible!

[River looks up at him, sweet, sincere, deadpan:]

River: (holds up torn-out pages) It's broken. It doesn't make sense.

Book: It's not about making sense. It's about believing in something, and letting that belief be real enough to change your life. It's about "faith". (gets up) You don't fix faith, River. It fixes you.

[He smiles, trying to gently take the crumpled, torn-out pages from her hand. She tugs back. They have a short tug-of-war then Book relents.]

Book: Why don't you, ah, you hang on to those then.

From "Firefly: The Official Companion, volume two", published by Titan Books