... Nature almost surely operates by combining chance with necessity, randomness with determinism...

Though we might like to think so, humankind is not at any special, unique or privileged location in the gargantuan, perhaps infinite, Universe.

At every level in our inventory, nothing seems special about our Earth, our Sun, our Galaxy, our Local Group. Evidently, mediocrity reigns throughout. Such is our niche in the Universe.

Given enough time, even evolution evolves.

Science is agnostic when it comes to God - not atheistic, as some people prefer to read that laden word wrongly - just agnostic.

The epitome of culture is the search for truth, or at least a reasonable approximation of reality, most notably the need to know ourselves and the world around us.

Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. We worship self-indulgence & consumption.

Four things for success: work and pray, think and believe.

The contents of someone's bookcase are part of his history, like an ancestral portrait.

Back when they supported segregation, Lott and Thurmond were Democrats.

The opportunity to lecture had restored my good humor.

I wish I could tell every young girl with an eating disorder, or who has harmed herself in any way, that she's worthy of life and that her life has meaning. You can overcome and get through anything.

I had a very unusual contract. Most artists actually pay for their record dates and it comes out of their royalties. I paid for nothing.

My anti-authoritarian instincts let me directly to criminal defense work.

There is no such condition as 'schizophrenia,' but the label is a social fact and the social fact a political event.

If only a group of people were more important to me than the idea of a Novel, I might begin a novel.