My best teachers were not the ones who knew all the answers, but those who were deeply excited by questions they couldn't answer.

I've seen children's eyes light up when I tell them about black holes and the Big Bang.

I think math is a hugely creative field, because there are some very well-defined operations that you have to work within. You are, in a sense, straightjacketed by the rules of the mathematics. But within that constrained environment, it's up to you what you do with the symbols.

The central idea of string theory is quite straightforward. If you examine any piece of matter ever more finely, at first you'll find molecules, atoms, sub-atomic particles. Probe the smaller particles, you'll find something else, a tiny vibrating filament of energy, a little tiny vibrating string.

Physicists are more like avant-garde composers, willing to bend traditional rules... Mathematicians are more like classical composers.

Physics grapples with the largest questions the universe presents. Where did the totality of reality come from? Did time have a beginning?

I believe that through its rational evaluation of truth and indifference to personal belief, science transcends religious and political divisions and so does bind us into a greater, more resilient whole.