Writer Cormac McCarthy confides in Oprah Winfrey

Winfrey asked if "The Road" was just a story of a man and his boy or something deeper.

"I like to think it's just about the boy and the man on the road but obviously you can draw conclusions about all sorts of things from reading the book depending on your taste," McCarthy said.

While he said it is a "pretty simple, straightforward story," people may be more concerned about apocalyptic things in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

"This country's been pretty lucky, just like me," he said.

The message readers might take away from "The Road," he said, is that one should "simply care about things and people and be more appreciative."

"Life is pretty damn good, even when it looks bad. We should be grateful," McCarthy said.

Asked by Winfrey if he had "worked the God thing out," he said: "It would depend on what day you ask me. I don't think you have to have a great idea of who or what God is in order to pray ... you can be quite doubtful about the whole business."

McCarthy recounted how he lived in poverty before his writing earned him a living, once being tossed out of a $40-a-month hotel room in New Orleans.

Asked if he cared that millions of people were now reading his words, McCarthy said: "In all honesty I have to say I really don't."

"You would like for the people who appreciate the book to read it but as far as many, many people reading it, so what?" he said. "It's ok, nothing wrong with it."