How would you interpret this sentence? “So. Matus the snake has contacted me because a motion-picture option got his attention. That’s what you think?” “You know what they say. God wants to punish you, he answers your prayers.” “Artie, I didn’t pray for a motion picture. It makes me uneasy. I don’t like attention.” “You have a funny way of choosing your profession, in that case.” “People think that. If a person is famous, he must have wanted to be in the public eye. But to me, writing books is a way to earn a living in my pajamas.” How would you interpret this sentence in the second passage: God wants to punish you, he answers your prayers? PS: The first speaker was a novelist and the other was his lawyer. Thanks! And it’s from The Lacuna.