I had made an empirical discovery and it carried all the weight of a mathematical proof.

Changing your mind is probably one of the most beautiful things people can do. And I've changed my mind about a lot of things over the years.

After something crystallizes, I can write ferociously and write novels in six months, which in the past would have taken me two years.

Medical care for the entire country seems to me a basic right. If every other country in the West can do it, why can't we?

I feel now, in my impending old age, very lucky. I just can't tell you how lucky I feel, that I've managed to first of all, stay alive this long, in reasonably good health, and that I've been able to do what I want to do.

One should never underestimate the power of books.

I don't like talking about my work at all. I find it very difficult. I never know what to say. It's too close to me, and there's so many things happening unconsciously while I'm working that I'm not aware of, and people will point these things out to me, and I'll say, "That's interesting." But I don't know what to make of it.