Human consensus does not generate reality. Were it able to do so, the Sun would have taken to orbiting the Earth some time ago.

Life from nonlife, like wine from water, has long been considered a miracle wrought by gods or God. Now it is seen to be the near-inevitable consequence of our thermal and chemical circumstances.

Reverence is the sense that there is something larger than the self, larger even than the human, to which one accords respect and awe and assent.

The most reliable joy is to be out of doors, to be a creature among other creatures. I find it very restful.

The Senegalese conservationist Baba Dioum can summarize: "In the end, we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught."

We are embedded in the great evolutionary story of planet Earth, the spare, elegant process of mutation and selection and bricolage. And this means that we are anything but alone.

When the responses elicited by the Epic of Evolution are gathered together several religious principles emerge that I can believe, serve as a framework for a global Ethos.

It is as we respond to the understandings and feelings inherent in . . . art that we acquire much of our truth, much of our nobility and grace, and much of our pleasure.

Being over there changes a man. Right and wrong don't look so different anymore to some.

Our goal in science is to discover universal laws of nature. That pursuit fills me with wonder.

It was a pretty posh place. They were so used to fur coats that two bears strolled in and ordered lunch and nobody even noticed.

Live as a credible witness. If our actions don't line up with the message we're proclaiming, we risk losing our credibility.

To be true to ourselves, we must be true to others.

The cool thing about doing films and being different characters is that it's new everyday and new every project. So, you're always learning something different and you get to do research.

I love horses so much. Horses are my life.

The only way to have a best friend is to be one.

What makes cookbooks interesting is to find out about the people and the culture that invented the food.

My beautiful wife is dead. She meant everything to me. Her laughter, her tears and her joy will remain with me the rest of my life.