While human nature largely determines how we hear the notes, it is nurture that lets us hear the music.

[It's] troubling because it reminds us how difficult it is to prove anything. We like to pretend that our experiments define the truth for us. But that's often not the case. Just because an idea is true doesn't mean it can be proved. And just because an idea can be proved doesn't mean it's true. When the experiments are done, we still have to choose what to believe.

Cities force us to interact with strangers and with the strange. They pry the mind open. And that is why they are the idea that has unleashed so many of our new ideas.

I always wanted to be a scientist, I always thought I'd be a scientist, that was the narrative I was carrying around. I worked in a neuroscience lab as an undergraduate and then after, almost five years in total, but I realized I just wasn't good at science. I didn't have the discipline for it.

Just because an idea is true doesn't mean it can be proved. And just because an idea can be proved doesn't mean it's true.

If you're trying to be more creative, one of the most important things you can do is increase the volume and diversity of the information to which you are exposed.

Every creative story is different. And every creative story is the same. There was nothing. Now there is something. It's almost like magic.