Data, I think, is one of the most powerful mechanisms for telling stories. I take a huge pile of data and I try to get it to tell stories.

When people don’t pay the true cost of something, they tend to consume it inefficiently.

The key to learning is feedback. It is nearly impossible to learn anything without it.

Levitt admits to having the reading interests of a tweener girl, the Twilight series and Harry Potter in particular.

The data don't lie: a Chicago street prostitute is more likely to have sex with a cop than to be arrested by one.

Solving a problem is hard enough; it gets that much harder if you’ve decided beforehand it can’t be done.

Purity is a good mask for corruption because it discourages inquiry.