I was aware of it, but I grew up in a very a-religious family. My mother never went to church, she never had any religious training or background. It was never a part of our social interaction.

Commitment, belief and positive attitude are all important if you're going to be a success, whether you're in sports, in business or, as in my case, anthropology.

As an undergraduate, I had an opportunity to go on a number of archeological digs. So I had experience excavating, digging up remains of ancient Indian villages in the Midwest and in the Southwest.

One has to take initiative in life to achieve what he or she wants.

One has to devote oneself to a particular pursuit. To be successful at anything, you have to make a total commitment to it.

My real father died when I was two years old, so I never knew him. He was a barber in Chicago.

But what really excited me was the idea that humans had a tremendous pre-history that went back millions of years. I wanted to go to Africa to find some of these creatures.

Most Achievers I Know Are People Who Have Made A Strong And Deep Dedication to Pursuing A Particular Goal. That Dedication Took A Tremendous Amount Of Effort.

In our case, finding a Lucy is unique. No one will ever find another Lucy. You can't order one from a biological supply house. It's a unique discovery, a unique specimen.

I think that many of my ideas are correct, but I'll bet you, before my death other discoveries will be made that will prompt me to alter various ideas I have about human evolution.

And what I wanted to do was, I wanted to explore problems and areas where we didn't have answers. In fact, where we didn't even know the right questions to ask.

The world is mostly divided between madmen who remember and madmen who forget. Heroes are rare.

I was accused of always acting superior. Always means being, not acting.

I know a lot about writing, but I don't know much about how other industries work. I've tried to use my naivety to my advantage.

I hardly ever go out when I'm home.

In what I think is the most serious problem the world faces, which is the population explosion, we will come I think to a time when measures that are not even dreamt of now will become necessary.

Metaphorically these essays move as a quiet but observant coast-guard cutter among the rocks and islands up and down the littoral of our life.

I think you need to do something new to keep reinventing yourself.

Because I understand all the ways of trying to escape, how sometimes you escape one prison only to find you've built yourself a different one.

I'm European, I wake up in heels.

I've been reading a lot of books on history, and watching a lot of educational TV. Wikipedia too, even though it is not reliable.