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

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.

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.

Lucy brought with her an image of our human ancestors that you don't get when you find a jaw or an arm bone or a leg bone. Here was 40 percent of a single skeleton.

Water is the driving force in nature.

One common cause of this mistake of preferring to imagine and admire a great ideal instead of beginning to do little deeds is our impatience with little baby steps, our lack of humility.

If your blade were as sharp as your tongue, you'd have sliced me through years ago.

Whatever deficiencies the leaders of the American Revolution may have had, reticence, fortunately, was not one of them.

The most difficult part of dating as a single parent is deciding how much risk your own child's heart is worth.

Sometimes people who are Jewish are held to a higher standard which sometimes we take great pride in.

[Elizabeth Moon's] antagonists are always evil moustache-twirlers. She could write a book about a golf open and the main rival to the hero would turn out to have clubs made from compressed kittens.

Getting lost in a place like this you can almost guarantee that you aren't going to make it out here.

I never thought I'd ever do a pirate bar, to be honest with you.

In city planning, there is no limit to be fixed.