It's not easy to cut through a human head with a hacksaw.

I am certain there is too much certainty in the world.

They are focused on whether they can do something. They never think whether they should do something.

In the information society, nobody thinks. We expect to banish paper, but we actually banish thought.

The belief that there are other life forms in the universe is a matter of faith. There is not a single shred of evidence for any other life forms, and in forty years of searching, none has been discovered. There is absolutely no evidentiary reason to maintain this belief.

It's not easy to cut through a human head with a hacksaw.

Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled.

Books aren't written - they're rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn't quite done it.

Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you're being had.

Readers probably haven't heard much about it yet, but they will. Quantum technology turns ordinary reality upside down.

We all live every day in virtual environments, defined by our ideas.

I tended to faint when I saw accident victims in the emergency ward, during surgery, or while drawing blood.

Human beings never think for themselves; they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told - and become upset if they are exposed to any different view.

I want a news service that tells me what no one knows but is true nonetheless.

The American media produce a product of very poor quality. Its information is not reliable, it has too much chrome and glitz, its doors rattle, it breaks down almost immediately, and it's sold without warranty. It's flashy, but it's basically junk.

The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their 'beliefs.'

We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion.

The academic world was marching toward ever more specialized knowledge, expressed in ever more dense jargon.

Discovery they believe is inevitable. So they just try to do it first. Thats the game in science.

Discovery is always rape of the natural world. Always.

We need to get environmentalism out of the sphere of religion. We need to stop the mythic fantasies and we need to stop the doomsday predictions. We need to start doing hard science instead.

And entertainment has nothing to do with reality. Entertainment is antithetical to reality.

Harassment is about power the undue exercise of power by a superior over a subordinate.

The nasty little apes that call themselves human beings can do nothing except run and hide.

Do you know what we call opinion in the absence of evidence? We call it prejudice.

Raising children is, in a sense, the reason the society exists in the first place. It's the most important thing that happens, and it's the culmination of all the tools and language and social structure that has evolved.

Clothes as text clothes as narration clothes as a story. Clothes as the story of our lives. And if you were to gather all the clothes you have ever owned in all your life each baby shoe and winter coat and wedding dress you would have your autobiography.

I'm just going to try and be a good dad and not spoil the kid: give him love and encouragement but also discipline. Me and my woman, we don't want him to feel too entitled.

Teach For America provides one of the most critical pipelines for bringing new talent into public education.

On collar wounds, we normally manage to save them, but they can take weeks to heal because they're so deep, and they sort of grow into the flesh under the arm.

Sometimes all you need is just for somebody to believe in you in order to be able to accomplish maybe what you never thought you could.

I no longer say nice things about yoga. I was doing yoga so long before everybody else.

In Asia, it's customary to get together with your entire extended family on a regular basis, and it's all rife with politics.

I don't buy diamonds, I don't buy cars, but I enjoy travelling. I'm not a very possessive person as far as things go.

Organized religion provides a model of the way all organizations, from the state down to the village garden club, end a price in terms of a member's freedom of thought and action.

Solemnity in politicians is not only tiresome but may even mask those twin sins - self-righteousness and intolerance - for the opinions of others. If I couldn't laugh, I couldn't live, especially in politics.

A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.

The land of my fathers. My fathers can have it.

'True Blood' is amazing. I have to give a shout out to 'Melrose Place' because I do watch. I love 'Entourage.' One of my favorite shows back in the day was 'Friday Night Lights.'

People look at me and they don't see what they think is a typical Aboriginal.

I think the film is beautifully realised. His legacy as a journalist was recorded - as it were - well, and certainly the important issues of the '50s - or even today - are delivered and presented to the audience in a rather honest and objective way.

You can only dance for so long, but you can act until you're dead, so... I fell in love with it and I want to keep doing it and pushing myself.

In good relationships, we are happy to grow as the other person becomes part of us and who we are.

I had a very happy childhood.

Persistence is a pretty important part of making it in this business, which, in retrospect, is the easy part. Maintaining a profile is the difficult part of the job. Somehow or another, I muddled through that system and somehow am around to still enjoy playing for people.

Astonishingly, in spite of decades of research, there is no agreed theory of cancer, no explanation for why, inside almost all healthy cells, there lurks a highly efficient cancer subroutine that can be activated by a variety of agents - radiation, chemicals, inflammation and infection.

That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly.

Digital books are still painfully ugly and weirdly irritating to interact with. They look like copies of paper, but they can't be designed or typeset in the same way as paper, and however splendid the cover images may look on a hi-res screen, they're still images rather than physical things.

Religion reveals itself in struggling to reveal the meaning of the world.