A mere ape in our world may be a scholar in its own, and the low life of any beast may be a source of deep satisfaction for the beast itself.

Jellyfish serve as a model for bioengineers for the same reason yeast were once so valuable to geneticists: they're simple to deconstruct.

There's no such thing as downtime for your brain.

Your parents leave you too soon and your kids and spouse come along late, but your siblings know you when you are in your most inchoate form.

Vaccines save lives; fear endangers them. It's a simple message parents need to keep hearing.

From the time we're born, our brothers and sisters are our collaborators and coconspirators, our role models and our cautionary tales.

Confidence quickly curdles into arrogance; smarts turn to smugness, charm turns to smarm.

It's not mere extremism that makes folks at the fringes so troubling; it's extremism wedded to false beliefs. Humans have long been dupes, easily gulled by rumors and flat-out lies.

There's a universe inside your head - a place of pictures and passions, of songs and sorrows. It's everything you are - and it's an utter mystery.

When we're awake, cortisol can fragment memories - one reason eyewitness crime scene accounts are so unreliable. But at night that very fragmentation allows creative recombinations of ideas.

In both children and adults, there can be a hard-to-deny link between a robust sense of hope and either work productivity or academic achievement.

You would not enjoy Nietzsche, sir. He is fundamentally unsound.

I'm scared David""That's good, because there's lots to be afraid of

Our worst misfortunes never happen and most miseries lie in anticipation.

Everyone saw me on TV or read articles, and it was all about my great marriage, the white picket fence, all this success and my perfect life. But behind the scenes, it was a struggle.

Of course in show business there are two ways to play it and I am not politically correct so I am not going to get endorsements or anything like that

I'm not interested in being commodified. I'm not into being sold. I'm not a slave.

If you think you are too old to rock 'n roll, then you are.

Gertrude Stein really thought of Hemingway as frail. He almost married Stein.

I love doing theater. That's where my home is.

If all you do is follow the herd, you'll just be stepping in poop all day