We used to build civilizations. Now we build shopping malls.

It's an unnerving thought that we may be the living universe's supreme achievement and its worst nightmare simultaneously.

South Dakota... is like the world's first drive-through sensory deprivation chamber.

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 really enjoy going to a library and spending the day doing research - to me that is the most pleasurable part of writing the science book.

Physicists are atoms' way of thinking about atoms.

Woods are not like other spaces. To begin with, they are cubic. Their trees surround you, loom over you, press in from all sides. Woods choke off views & leave you muddled & without bearings. They make you feel small & confused & vulnerable, like a small child lost in a crowd of strange legs. Stand in a desert or prairie & you know you are in a big space. Stand in the woods and you only sense it. They are vast, featureless nowhere. And they are alive.