The right to choose to live or to die is the most fundamental right there is; conversely, the duty to give others that opportunity to the best of our ability is the most fundamental duty there is.

Accept the difficulty of what you cannot yet change. But do not accept the impossibility of ever changing it.

There is no difference between saving lives and extending lives, because in both cases we are giving people the chance of more life.

It's not just about life, of course; it's about healthy life. Getting frail and miserable and dependent is no fun, whether or not dying may be fun.

[Anti-aging therapies will] never be perfect, but we'll be able to fix the things that 200-year-olds die of before we have any 200-year-olds, and the same for 300 and 400 and so on.

If changing our world is playing God, it is just one more way in which God made us in His image.

The biggest handicap in research is an ability to think outside the box. The handicap is being encumbered by all the conventional wisdom in a given field.

What I actually wanted to do with my life is make a difference to the world. That led me into science very quickly.

If you look at winners of the Nobel Prize in biology, you'll find a fair smattering of people who don't know how to work a pipette.

What I'm after is not living to 1,000. I'm after letting people avoid death for as long as they want to.

Ageing is, simply and clearly, the accumulation of damage in the body. That's all that ageing is.

What we do is what means the most.

Only a reader can understand how a book with 100 pages can be too long and one with 1000 pages can be too short.

Darkness swallows everything, even pain. That’s what makes it so tempting. Comforting. It disguises weakness as strength.

Inspiration for my short stories grows from a psychic kernel, a vision of some sort or an eccentric, colorful dream.

Global Warming: It is a hoax. It is bad science. It is high-jacking public policy. It is the greatest scam in history.

You know what really shuts up a bully? Learning how to build a pipe-bomb!

I consider myself foremost a novelist with the intent of crafting stories that people will remember.

Attachment is not love. Where there is attachment there is exploitation.

Heroic deeds, to use whatever dower Heaven has bestowed, to test our utmost power.

Death is the only real elegance.