"Be it a young student trying to decide on a direction of study, a working professional seeking something beyond the daily grind, or a retiree who'd finally found the time to read up on developments in science, if I could help guide them...the task of writing The Elegant Universe would have been worth the effort."

This quotation is taken from the preface to the Second Edition, and enlightens on the task Brian Greene intended his book to serve in our society - that is, informative, but not intrusively so.