As many political writers have pointed out, commitment to political equality is not an empirical claim that people are clones.

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.

Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires.

The fantasized kiss was stolen time from the dreams…

I grew up in a family of secrets there was a lot of pathology in the family.

Burn me. Drown me. Tell me lies. I will still be who I am.

I am not interested in an economic liberation of man without the liberation of the whole man.

I'll never sing something that I've never been through. So even if I didn't write it, I have to have at least experienced it.

At my age, I'm just happy to be named the greatest living anything.

We were constantly hearing it repeated, that we must never again look upon ourselves as our own; but must remember, that we were solemnly and irrevocably devoted to God.

I would say that I definitely play a different role with my style; I like to mix it up a bit according to wherever I am. I dress differently in New York, L.A., Paris and London.

You can't just keep doing what works one time, everything around you is changing. To succeed, stay out in front of change.