Growing up, mostly in Montreal, I was an only child of loving parents.

Being exposed to theory, stimulated by a basic love of concepts and mathematics, was a marvelous experience.

Life would be indeed easier if the experimentalists would only pause for a little while!

My interest in the sciences started with mathematics in the very beginning, and later with chemistry in early high school and the proverbial home chemistry set.

During my McGill years, I took a number of math courses, more than other students in chemistry.

My education at Baron Byng High School was excellent, with dedicated masters (boys and girls were separate).

After a subsequent interview at Brooklyn Poly, I was hired, and life as a fully independent researcher began.

After some minor pieces of theoretical study that I worked on, a student in my statistical mechanics class brought to my attention a problem in polyelectrolytes.

My life as a working theorist began three months after this preliminary study and background reading, when Oscar gently nudged me toward working on a particular problem.

I have always loved going to school.

I really enjoyed being Peppy Miller. She was an amazing character and her energy followed me everywhere. When I talk about her I want to be her again.

I knew 'Mars Needs Moms! ' would be a movie seconds after the title came to mind. Similarly, I also knew that my daughter would be calling me a dork as a default term of endearment eventually.

There is as much ingenuity in making an felicitous application of an passage as in being the author of it.

Areas with lots of college students/young people can be a minefield, so I tend to avoid them.

God is the celebrity author of the world's best seller. We have made god into the biggest celebrity of all, to contain our own emptiness.

People conquered on different sides of the lake should be ruled on different sides of the lake.

The world tends to trap you in the role you play and it is always extremely hard to maintain a watchful, mocking distance between oneself as one appears to be and oneself as one actually is.

Who are we beyond the roles that we play?

When I use the Internet, it's pretty much strictly for music. Checking out other people's web sites, what's going on, listening to music. It's pretty much a musical thing for me.

I like books that are exciting and that make you think about things, as well.