The variety of genes on the planet in viruses exceeds, or is likely to exceed, that in all of the rest of life combined.

Today [the voice of women] is being heard loud and clear. But I do not read the welcome triumph of feminism, social, economic, and creative, as a brief for postmodernism. The advance, while opening new avenues of expression and liberating deep pools of talent, has not exploded human nature into little pieces. Instead, it has set the stage for a fuller exploration of the universal traits that unite humanity.

The commitment must be much deeper - to let no species knowingly die; to take all reasonable action to protect every species and race in perpetuity.

I doubt that most people with short-term thinking love the natural world enough to save it.

Destroying a tropical rainforest for profit is like burning all the paintings of the Louvre to cook dinner.

I had reached a point in my career in which I was ready to try something new in my writing, and the idea of a novel has always been in the back of my mind.

Go as far as you can, [young scientists]. The world needs you badly.