Black bears rarely attack. But here's the thing. Sometimes they do. All bears are agile, cunning and immensely strong, and they are always hungry. If they want to kill you and eat you, they can, and pretty much whenever they want. That doesn't happen often, but - and here is the absolutely salient point - once would be enough.

When you consider it from a human perspective, and clearly it would be difficult for us to do otherwise, life is an odd thing. It couldn't wait to get going, but then, having gotten going, it seemed in very little hurry to move on.

I had always thought that once you grew up you could do anything you wanted - stay up all night or eat ice-cream straight out of the container.

I'm not funny in person. I mean I'm really not. I'm one of those people who always screw up anecdotes.

Physics is really nothing more than a search for ultimate simplicity, but so far all we have is a kind of elegant messiness.

Houses aren't refuges from history. They are where history ends up.

Protons give an atom its identity, electrons its personality.