There was a boy in my building who was my best friend when I was growing up. There was also a mysterious person on my corner who we called the Laughing Man.

I think that's one of the most important things that books do: not to teach you anything, but to help you teach yourself by just being in the world of the book and having your own thoughts and reactions and noticing your own reactions and thoughts and learning about yourself that way.

I have nothing like a writing routine. I sometimes have trouble buckling down to write at home.

I think things hit me very hard, and I wish I had allowed things to roll off my back a little bit more.

We must accept what science tells us, that man was born from the earth. But, more logical than the scientists who lecture us, we must carry this lesson to its conclusion: that is to say, accept that man was born entirely from the world - not only his flesh and bones but his incredible power of thought.

Work by Maria Blasco, Calvin Harley, Michael Fossel, Woodring Wright and Shay and Ronald Depinho in particular are of interest but there are literally thousands of articles relating to telomerase, telomeres and the biology behind it.

The characteristic of scientific progress is our knowing that we did not know.

The scientific content of Genesis 1-11 holds special significance for me because it revolutionized my thinking and, thus, changed my life's direction. Until I reached my late teens, my singular passion was science, astronomy in particular. My life's purpose was to learn more about the universe; nothing beyond that really interested me.