My job at Stanford is rather different from the ones I had held previously in that my own ambitions must take a back seat to the well-being of the students with whom I work.

My childhood home backed onto wheat and cotton fields.

The questions worth asking, in other words, come not from other people but from nature, and are for the most part delicate things easily drowned out by the noise of everyday life.

My mother also had us take piano lessons, and this had a similar effect. I hated those lessons, but I now play regularly for pleasure and have even tried my hand at composing.

A person obsessed with ultimate truth is a person asking to be relieved of money.

In parallel with the development of my interests in technical gadgetry I began to acquire a profound love of and respect for the natural world which motivates my scientific thinking to this day.

The modern concept of the vacuum of space, confirmed every day by experiment, is a relativistic ether.

But the need for conflict to expose prejudice and unclear reasoning, which is deeply embedded in my philosophy of science, has its origin in these debates.

It is an interesting fact that during my tour I was never allowed access to computers, radios, or anything else that I might damage through curiosity, or perhaps something more sinister.

Western society has many flaws, and it is good for an educated person to have thought some of these through, even at the expense of losing a lecture or two to tear gas.

It was at Bell Labs that I first made direct contact with real semiconductor experts and thus began to fully understand what amazing materials they were and what they could do.

An athlete experiences the emotions of pain and elation through triumph and defeat, through teamwork and individuality, as nothing more than a human being...that is the true glory of sport.

This is probably the most difficult task we have ever given ourselves, which is to intentionally transform the economic development model, for the first time in human history.

When experience flies into realms that language cannot touch, honesty demands beyond-language.

The feeling of love is measured by the extent of missing the feverish state in which the absence of the other plunges us

Psychos and megalomaniacs are my forte, remember? They all wanna hang with me

Republicans are always criticizing President Obama for using the teleprompter. Is that a big deal? After eight years of George Bush, I'm glad we have a president that can read.

Today there are no more irreconcilable enmities, because there are no more disinterested emotions: that's a good thing born from a bad thing.

I used to do drugs. I still do drugs. But I used to, too.

The perfectionist is another name for someone who is getting ready to become mad.

Break windows, smoke cigars, and stay up late. Tell 'em to do that, they'll find a little pot of gold.