For your own safety, do not ever tell an astrophysicist, I hope all your stars are twinkling.

In America, there are people who don't read science fiction but still think about tomorrow, so it's not only the force of science-fiction that makes you a tomorrow thinker.

I have a very high respect for professional comedians. What they do astonishes me. You have to be really smart and absorb everything, repackage it, bring it back to the person, and make them laugh at themselves. I can make people laugh during my talks because they didn't come to have me make them laugh. It's added value. So my job is way easier than that of a professional comic.

WhenIWasYourAge: People were never "living with their disease." We cured them. Or they died from it.

The universe's destiny has very little to do with the near-term destiny of Earth.

Now imagine a world in which everyone, but especially people with power and influence, holds an expanded view of our place in the cosmos. With that perspective, our problems would shrink-or never arise at all-and we could celebrate our earthly differences while shunning the behavior of our predecessors who slaughtered each other because of them.

We fail in even the simplest of all scientific observations-nobody looks up anymore.