People at CDC [Centers for Disease Control] who cut their teeth on diseases over the last 10 years have started to think of crime as another disease, and using some of these same concepts. It was something that was in the air in that world, but it was time to bust it out and apply it to any number of different social epidemics.

The world is not a meritocracy, as much as we may like to pretend that it is. And we have a long way to go before we really reward people based on their own merit.

Track is full of the absolute nicest and most polite athletes in all of sports, and where does it get us?

I'm necessarily parasitic in a way. I have done well as a parasite. But I'm still a parasite.

It's very hard to find someone who's successful and dislikes what they do.

We don't know where our first impressions come from or precisely what they mean, so we don't always appreciate their fragility.

our unconscious reactions come out of a locked room, and we can't look inside that room. but with experience we become expert at using our behavior and our training to interpret - and decode - what lies behind our snap judgment and first impressions.