Some people believe that the nuclear bomb should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, since it scared the major powers away from war by equating it with doomsday.

Art works because it appeals to certain faculties of the mind. Music depends on details of the auditory system, painting and sculpture on the visual system. Poetry and literature depend on language.

Why are empirical questions about how the mind works so weighted down with political and moral and emotional baggage?

All our behaviours are a result of neurophysiological activity in the brain. There is no reason to believe there is any magic going on.

I suspect music is auditory cheesecake, an exquisite confection crafted to tickle the sensitive spots of... our mental faculties.

Evolutionary psychology is one of four sciences that are bringing human nature back into the picture.

Thanks to the redundancy of language, yxx cxn xndxrstxnd whxt x xm wrxtxng xvxn xf x rxplxcx xll thx vxwxls wxth xn "x" (t gts lttl hrdr f y dn't vn kn whr th vwls r)

Photography is a kind of virtual reality, and it helps if you can create the illusion of being in an interesting world.

Plants can't very well defend themselves by their behavior, so they resort to chemical warfare, and plants are saturated with toxins and irritants to deter creatures like us who want to eat them.

I would argue that nothing gives life more purpose than the realization that every moment of consciousness is a precious and fragile gift.

Babies are born with the instinct to speak, the way spiders are born with the instinct to spin webs. You don't need to train babies to speak; they just do. But reading is different.

they say people only hear what they want to hear, but i don't know if that is always true, i've been wanting to hear your heart and it's as silent as the moon.

I haven't been to too many cons since Star Wars, and I don't think it's really going to change until it comes out.

Honesty with ourselves & others gets us sober, but it is tolerance that keeps us that way.

When they say you're the best, I always remember that the majority of the audience probably thinks someone else should have gotten the award.

The Bible is the divine means of developing spiritual maturity. There is no other way.

That was the thing about secrets-you had to carry them with you forever, no matter what the cost.

Los Angeles has been good to me.

Perhaps we are given a mom that we might take into death the memory of a lullaby.

Heat, ma am! It was so dreadful here that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones.

You don't love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.