There is a set of balances and rhythms to a novel that we can't experience in real life. So I think there is a sense in which fiction can rescue history from confusion.

It was important for him to believe that he'd spent his life among people who kept missing the point.

And what's the point of waking up in the morning if you don't try to match the enormousness of the known forces in the world with something powerful in your own life?

I have only a bare working knowledge of the human brain but it's enough to make me proud to be an American.

Dying was just an extended version of Ash Wednesday.

Your brain has a trillion neurons and every neuron has ten thousand little dendrites. The system of inter-communication is awe-inspiring.

There's a connection between the advances that are made in technology and the sense of primitive fear people develop in response to it.