I began to write it all down when I was on Mount Athos, during a period of complete solitude, while staying at the kathisma or monastic dwelling of St John the Theologian, near the small harbour of Simonopetra Monastery. I completed it later when I was staying on the island of the same St John, on Patmos, in Kouvari. Both, places of quietude and spiritual seclusion. Places of prayer. In all I only needed a few days. My sole companion was the noble disciple of love, St John. The one who truly loved and was indeed loved by Christ. The text would only be the fruit of love and quietude; it is a fruit of the desert. I would say the fruit of prayer, but I fear that this might be considered an exaggeration.
The questions – I chose one hundred to make a round number – and the dialogues are all authentic. The people are also real, although of course the names have been changed. On the other hand I have not recorded the whole discussion, but I have selected certain questions. All this is not so important. What really matters is for human nature and the person of the true God to be revealed clearly and truly through the whole discussion. Nothing else in this life matters more.