Bore children, and they stop reading. There's no room for self-indulgence or showing off or setting the scene.

I was born too late for steam trains and a lazy eye meant I'd never be an astronaut.

It wasn't about believing this or that, it wasn't even about good and evil and right and wrong, it was about finding the strength to bear the discomfort that came with being in the world.

And it occurred to him that there were two parts to being a better person. One part was thinking about other people. The other part was not giving a toss what other people thought.

I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy, sad, cross and concentrating. Also, dogs are faithful and they do not tell lies because they cannot talk.

On the fifth day, which was a Sunday, it rained very hard. I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty.

Everyone has learning difficulties, because learning to speak French or understanding relativity is difficult.

No one wants to know how clever you are. They don't want an insight into your mind, thrilling as it might be. They want an insight into their own.

You love someone, you've got to let something go.

For me, disability is a way of getting some extremity, some kind of very difficult situation, that throws an interesting light on people.

From a good book, I want to be taken to the very edge. I want a glimpse into that outer darkness.

Las Vegas, the most expensive toilet in the world that still can’t flush.

Sometimes the only way to deal with horrific things in life is through a dark sense of humor.

...I gave up on being a journalist - I thought having a point of view was more important than being objective.

A good goal is one that is important and beautiful.

Prototype, then polish. Get it working before you optimize it

Socialism is not an alternative to capitalism; it is an alternative to any system under which men can live as human beings.

It is said that we only get to know God in those stark moments when we are driven to depend on him.

Just another cold, misty morning inviting, "want to go again?"

Everyone has a vocation by which he earns his living, but he also has a vocation in an older sense of the word-the vocation to use his powers and live his life well.

If you are close to your parents or a grandparent, you watch as they get old and you learn so much from that, and it makes you want to learn more while you have time.