Even though I am a mathematician, I look at [fetal development] with marvel: How do these instruction sets not make mistakes as they build what is us?

The magic of the mechanisms inside each genetic structure saying exactly where that nerve cell should go - the complexity of these mathematical models is beyond human comprehension.

Most of my friends were in band, and most of my free time during school was spent within twenty feet of the band room

A kleptomaniac is a person who helps himself because he can't help himself.

Failure means a stripping away of the inessential.

It's not at all hard to understand a person; it's only hard to listen without bias

If man understood that "what I create has nothing to do with what anybody else is creating" then he wouldn't be so afraid of what others are doing.

The perfumer fakes nature by blending different types of materials to reproduce their scent.

But the paparazzi are quite malicious and vocal and really rude, ... And they camped outside of my house, so I started throwing eggs at them, lobbing them at rocks next to them.

An Olympic medal won't define my whole life, although it might look like it to onlookers. When I look back, I should have been able to get an Olympic medal.

Sometimes you got to specifically go out of your way to get into trouble. It's called fun.

If I could kick the person in the tail that causes me the most problems I could not sit down for a week