In 'Packing for Mars,' I tried to convey the importance of getting young people interested in science.

You are a person and then you cease to be a person, and a cadaver takes your place.

I dont fear death so much as I fear its prologues: loneliness, decrepitude, pain, debilitation, depression, senility. After a few years of those, I imagine death presents like a holiday at the beach.

I began thinking about my skeleton, this solid, beautiful thing inside me that I would never see.

Instead, I quietly excused myself and went to the bar, to commune with spirits I know how to relate to.

The suffix 'naut' comes from the Greek and Latin words for ships and sailing. Astronaut suggests 'a sailor in space.' Chimponaut suggests 'a chimpanzee in sailor pants'.

All the clothes in my closet are Oakland, California, clothes. You can't wear those anywhere else. The barometric pressure drops and then where are you?

Bodily fluids and solids are universally the most disgusting things we as human beings can come upon, but as long as they are inside us, it's part of you.

Sexual desire is a state not unlike hunger.

Many people will find this book disrespectful. There is nothing amusing about being dead, they will say. Ah, but there is.

Gravity disappears again, and we rise up off the floor like spooks from a grave. It's like the Rapture in here every thirty seconds.

In 1054, the patriarch of Constantinople and the pope excommunicated each other. That was the end of holiness for both churches.

The horse respects and obeys man because its large eyes magnify everything, so man appears much larger than the horse itself.

Fantasy is the only truth.

Having love is more important than having a lover

The guy who says, 'I love the challenge of managing,' is one step from being out of a job. I don't welcome any challenge. I'd rather have nine guys named Robinson.

I'm not interested in closure. Some people just have heart attacks and die, right? There's no closure.

I'd rather see heaven crash from the skies than one grain of God's truth die.

People go tanning because they like to feel tan. You feel more sexy when you're tan and I don't understand why you would tax on that, because you're making yourself feel more happy about yourself.

You love her. (Shanus) I barely know her. (Wulf) Time has no meaning to the heart. (Shanus)

I shall be dumped where the weed decays, And the rest is rust and stardust