The press and the public like certainty and affirmation of popular biases. But real science thrives on the capacity for doubt.

We don't cut off the hands of thieves or castrate rapists. Why must we murder murderers?

Whatever lessons we take from this dreadful attack (on the World Trade Center and Pentagon), we should never forget that it was, after all, a faith based initiative.

When the inner child finds a guardian angel, publishers are in heaven.

I do what I do because I have a compulsion to hold forth. I don't spend a lot of time, if any, thinking about the effect my work is going to have on the world. And I have an abiding mistrust of people who think that they're going to change the world. I think that people who think that they're going to change the world are the kind of people who put bombs on airplanes.

The press and the public like certainty and affirmation of popular biases. But real science thrives on the capacity for doubt.

I don't think of myself as having a particular role. I'm lucky enough to be able to make my living essentially by expressing my opinions. But, you know, I think the world would manage quite well if I weren't doing it.