We are not angels, we are merely sophisticated apes. Yet we feel like angels trapped inside the bodies of beasts, craving transcendence and all the time trying to spread our wings and fly off, and it's really a very odd predicament to be in, if you think about it.

Remember that politics, colonialism, imperialism and war also originate in the human brain.

Great art allows you to transcend your mortal frame and to reach for the stars. I think great science does the same thing.

Even today no computer can understand language as well as a three-year-old or see as well as a mouse.

The minute you succumb to outside pressure, you cease to be creative.

One of the first things we teach medical students is to listen to the patient by taking a careful medical history. Ninety percent of the time, you can arrive at an uncannily accurate diagnosis by paying close attention, using physical examination and sophisticated lab test to confirm your hunch (and to increase the bill to the insurance company).

With the arrival of humans, it has been said, the universe has suddenly become conscious of itself. This, truly, it the greatest mystery of all.