The natural pattern of current astronomy is provided by the cryptic unity of nature itself (belief in which is the chief act of faith of the scientist).

Governments are trying to achieve unanimity by stifling any scientist who disagrees. Einstein could not have got funding under the present system.

The big discoveries raise questions that make astronomers work feverishly and argue with an agitation that verges on rudeness.

The threat of a new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery for mankind.

But, when tales of the cosmos are told, this period of ours may always be recalled as that in which men first came to realise what a violent universe we inhabit.

I won't do that when I'm a parent. I'll make different mistakes, of course.

A good writer is an excellent reader.

Children must be taught mathematics well in anywhere under every condition at every age and so we can have more rational, more logical societies!

We have reached a strange new place in marketing when tweets become full-page print ads.

Your outer world of attitudes, wealth, work, relationships and health will always be a reflection of your inner attitudes of mind.

I tried to be a ski bum when I stepped away from Twitter, and I wasn't a very good skier.

The problem of pretending to be alive.

Labour leaders lead us all, though we know they bleed us all. Cheer our new Decline and Fall, Gibbon might have dreamed it all.

How can I keep my soul in me, so that it doesn't touch your soul? How can I raise it high enough, past you, to other things?

I always believed that style was more important than fashion. They are rare, those who imposed their style while fashion makers are so numerous.