It's interesting to wake up at 3 in the morning by someone saying they're a reporter and they want to know how you feel. I felt fine, but I said, 'Well, why do you ask?'

There are still so many questions to answer. When you look at any part of the universe, you have to feel humbled.

Your job as a scientist is to figure out how you're fooling yourself.

It seemed like my favourite kind of job - a wonderful chance to ask something absolutely fundamental: the fate of the Universe and whether the Universe was infinite or not

From our point of view, the most exciting thing would be if we discovered something really fundamental in our understanding was just off a bit - and that now we have a chance to revisit it

So it's possible that someday, by understanding a little bit more about how the world works, it will come back to help us in some other way that will be surprising

Astronomers ought to be able to ask fundamental questions without accelerators

I was one of those kids who always thought that we should know how the world works around us

Nobody really expects a Nobel Prize call

Probably the single most important thing about the Nobel Prize for most people is whether they get the coveted parking space on campus.

It is a tough choice between ending up in the cold or ending up in a fiery blast.

When a stargirl cries, she sheds not tears but light.

The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher.

You're here, on your knees, praying as the seconds on your Mickey Mouse clock tick by, but in God's time, you're working with Him at the moment of creation, when there is no time.

Borrowing is not much better than begging; just as lending with interest is not much better than stealing.

You may well ask me why...I took the time to write [books]. I can only reply that I do not know. There was no why about it. I had to: that was all.

Great changes in the destiny of mankind can be effected only in the minds of little children.

I'm up to my hairline in planning. It's a lot, especially when you're a woman of detail.

I've gone through hell and back.

Let me tell you something about dying: it's not as bad as they says. it's the coming-back-to-life part that hurts.