I am nervous about dogmas of any kind, whether they be religious, political, or anti-religious. Too many heads have rolled because of them.

Without the protection of surliness and levity, all children would be crushed by the past—the past of others, loaded onto their shoulders. Selfishness is their saving grace.

Our biggest moral debt is to the environment. Take-take-take, nothing given back.

My brother and I were both good at science, and we were both good at English literature. Either one of us could have gone either way.

Every aspect of human technology has a dark side, including the bow and arrow.

Time is not a line but a dimension, like the dimensions of space. If you can bend space you can bend time also, and if you knew enough and could move faster than light you could travel backwards in time and exist in two places at once.

Optimism means better than reality; pessimism means worse than reality. I'm a realist.