In the case of Anathem, most of the research had to do with philosophy and metaphysics. Reading this sort of thing has never been my strong suit, so I actually had to be somewhat more "organized and results-driven" than is my habit. I just made up my mind that I was going to have to read some of these philosophy tomes, and I forced myself to read something like 10 pages a day until I had bashed my way through them.

There's only four things we do better than anyone else: music movies microcode (software) high-speed pizza delivery

Jack the sound barrier. Bring the noise.

Most Kabbalists were theorists who were interested only in pure meditation. But there were so-called 'practical Kabbalists' who tried to apply the power of the Kabbalah in everyday life.

Most countries are static, all they need to do is keep having babies. But America's like this big old clanking smoking machine that just lumbers across the landscape scooping up and eating everything in sight.

How could your cover be blown in Canada? Why even bother going dark there? How could you tell?

See, the world is full of things more powerful than us. But if you know how to catch a ride, you can go places.