Most of what has lived on Earth has left behind no record at all.

A sign in the yard of a church next door said CHRIST IS THE ANSWER. (The question, of course, is: What do you say when you strike your thumb with a hammer?)

I see litter as part of a long continuum of anti-social behaviour.

I'm definitely an American, because I grew up here. But I've lived very happily in Britain.

18th century scientists, the French in particular, seldom did things simply if an absurdly demanding alternative was available.

I tell the kids that, even in a childhood marked by despair and deprivation, I knew that no matter what happened, I still had my family, or at least the remnants of a family ripped apart by divorce and then glued back together in various odd arrangements through a series of ill- advised remarriages. It was good to know I had a solid foundation.

Eating in Sweden is really just a series of heartbreaks.