Few artists thrive in solitude and nothing is more stimulating than the conflict of minds with similar interests.

If such a thing had happened once, it must surely have happened many times in this galaxy of a hundred billion suns.

You will find men like him in all of the world's religions. They know that we represent reason and science, and, however confident they may be in their beliefs, they fear that we will overthrow their gods. Not necessarily through any deliberate act, but in a subtler fashion. Science can destroy a religion by ignoring it as well as by disproving its tenets. No one ever demonstrated, so far as I am aware, the nonexistance of Zeus or Thor, but they have few followers now.

There is no reason to assume that the universe has the slightest interest in intelligence—or even in life. Both may be random accidental by-products of its operations like the beautiful patterns on a butterfly's wings. The insect would fly just as well without them.

Then he [The Star Child] waited, marshaling his thoughts and brooding over his still untested powers. For though he was master of the world, he was not quite sure what to do next. But he would think of something.

I don't believe in astrology; I'm a Sagittarius and we're skeptical.

Can the synthesis of man and machine ever be stable, or will the purely organic component become such a hindrance that it has to be discarded?