When you finally understand the universe, it will not only be stranger than you imagine, it will be stranger than you can imagine.

I'm sometimes asked how I would like to be remembered. I've had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer, space promoter and science populariser. Of all these, I want to be remembered most as a writer - one who entertained readers, and, hopefully, stretched their imagination as well.

No communication technology has ever disappeared, but instead becomes increasingly less important as the technological horizon widens.

I sometimes think that the universe is a machine designed for the perpetual astonishment of astronomers.

Isn't killing people in the name of God a pretty good definition of insanity?

It was one thing to have guessed it, another to have had that guess confirmed beyond possibility of refutation.

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.