Certainly a decade and a half out in the real world, bashing my head against things, probably made me into a more textured writer. It gives you something to write about.

A preoccupation with the next world clearly shows an inability to cope credibly with this one.

Culture is like a smog. To live within it, you must breathe some of it in and, inevitably, be contaminated.

The way I see it, anyone who's proud of their country is either a thug or just hasn't read enough history yet.

War is like any other bad relationship. Of course you want out, but at what price? And perhaps more importantly, once you get out, will you be any better off?" - Quellcrist Falconer

The human eye is a wonderful device. With a little effort, it can fail to see even the most glaring injustice.

Take what is offered and that must sometimes be enough.

Evolutionary theory informs our understanding of some frankly inexcusable social behavior and renders it perfectly normal.

We all get our dreams stamped on from time to time, right? And if it didn’t hurt, what kind of second-rate dreams would they be?

I think by definition you need to have lived a little bit to write anything that's humanly true.

Pretty much anything you care to imagine can happen in a fantasy, which in turn means you can really crank up the intensity of the tale you're telling.

Alphabet: a symbolic system used in algebra, with applications that have yet to be discovered by dyslexics and two thirds of college graduates.

Her vision of the world under the water represented a beautiful stillness, a version of heaven. It was the lost city of Lena, her alternate universe, the life she yearned for but didn't get to have.

Be different.. be yourself.

Let women be provided with living strength of their own.

[Bacteria] have an incredibly complicated chemical lexicon that ... allows bacteria to be multicellular. In the spirit of TED they're doing things together because it makes a difference.

When companies fail, or fail to grow, it's almost always because they don't invest in the people, the systems, and the processes they need.

I usually have a very clear idea of where I want a song to go, sometimes very specific notes, but I'm generally open to suggestions.

Art is the most important thing to me in the entire world. It is my passion. Nothing else. End of story.

I reject that. I would rather recruit a Racist left winger than a right winger.