"Hi," I said. She came over, licked my hand discreetly, allowed herself to be scratched for a time, chased her tail in a dignified circle, lay down again. I remember thinking: "There are times God puts a choice in front of you." I often had such thoughts back then. We took the dog.

Reading my way all the way through Sherlock Holmes gave me a lifelong love for crime and detective fiction.

There are now some mountains that my brain can no longer climb.

Businesspeople are like sharks, not just because we're gray and slightly oily, or because our teeth trail the innards of those we have eviscerated, but because we must move forward or die.

What about passion, dedication, loyalty? Can a robot provide those? No! On the other hand, it's easier to retire a robot when its day is done.

There are no living beings who exert more power over others, pound for pound, than tiny babies and extremely thin moguls.

I can't think of a comparable level of cultural excitement about something since Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in the 1960s.