In theory, cars are fairly simple. If they don't start, it's either the fuel system or the electrical system. Teach yourself about the path of each in your engine and tracing it is fairly straightforward. But at the beginning, mastering each new system seems like an unreachable shore. The car is effectively a black box.

I think the whole thing that Jamie [Hyneman] and I have in working together is that we are constantly simplifying each other's designs, and we both appreciate that the quickest and the dirtiest solution is usually the most elegant, the least expensive, and the fastest.

Fractals, the theory of relativity, the genome: these are magnificently beautiful constructs.

When I finally got up to Industrial Light And Magic to work on the 'Star Wars' movies as a model-maker, it felt like dying and going to heaven.

Let's get on our knees and pray. I don't know to whom. Is there a patron saint of ballistics gel?

If I had any dignity, that would have been humiliating.

I find that your basic Internet chat board is way too vitriolic for my taste.