The role of gender in society is the most complicated thing I’ve ever spent a lot of time learning about, and I’ve spent a lot of time learning about quantum mechanics.

But I’ve never seen the Icarus story as a lesson about the limitations of humans. I see it as a lesson about the limitations of wax as an adhesive.

Take wrong turns. Talk to strangers. Open unmarked doors. And if you see a group of people in a field, go find out what they are doing. Do things without always knowing how they'll turn out.

I never trust anyone who's more excited about success than about doing the thing they want to be successful at.

You don't use science to show you're right, you use science to become right.

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can make me think I deserved it.

Correlation doesn’t imply causation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing ‘look over there.’

Things are rarely just crazy enough to work, but they're frequently just crazy enough to fail hilariously.

If at first you don't succeed, that's one data point.

You don't become great by trying to be great. You become great by wanting to do something, and then doing it so hard that you become great in the process.

There are so many adventures that you miss because you're waiting to think of a plan. To find them, look for tiny interesting choices. And remember that you are always making up the future as you go.

There is nothing in the world that I cannot achieve when I have the courage to believe.

Any time you put yourself on the line, you risk (and maybe fear) failing, falling, being embarrassed, or looking stupid—none of which are comfortable.

Sometimes funerals can be good. It reunites you with your cousins you haven't seen in a while.

You know, many people believe that we archaeologists are just a collection of old fogies digging around in the ruins after old dried up skulls and bones.

Success depends on intuition, on seeing what afterwards proves true but cannot be established at the moment.

Flow is hard to achieve without effort. Flow is not 'wasting time.

Missing your lunch is not exactly the end of the world.

People joked that Forster became more renowned with every book he did not write.

There is maybe a cynicism because of my past as a writer.

He receives comfort like cold porridge.