I cannot listen to Beethoven or Mahler or Chopin or Bach when I write because those composers require you stop what you are doing and listen.

We are not thinking machines that feel; rather, we are feeling machines that think.

More may have been learned about the brain and the mind in the 1990s - the so-called decade of the brain - than during the entire previous history of psychology and neuroscience.

A conscious mind is a mind with a self in it.

There is no such thing as a disembodied mind. The mind is implanted in the brain, and the brain is implanted in the body.

I continue to be fascinated by the fact that feelings are not just the shady side of reason but that they help us to reach decisions as well.

Emotions are enmeshed in the neural networks of reason.

The self is a perpetually recreated neurobiological state.

Consciousness begins when brains acquire the power, the simple power I must add, of telling a story.

The problem that we, as living organisms, face - and not we only, humans, but any living organism faces - is the management of life.

Rather than being a luxury, emotions are a very intelligent way of driving an organism toward certain outcomes.

Pay your bills, yes. But don't invest in them. Invest in your dreams. What you invest in grows.

A small spoon of victory is just the thing to settle the stomach before battle, " Ser Imry had declared happily.

Instead of showing strangers kindness and giving them the benefit of the doubt, we increasingly show them only fear, and that is bad for us and them.

You have to have the fighting spirit. You have to force moves and take chances

We were all delighted, we all realized we were leaving confusion and nonsense behind and performing our one and noble function of the time, move.

Once we realize the extraordinary power we have to compose our lives, well move from passive, conditioned thinking to being co-creators of our fate.

The stage is suspension of disbelief. Film is a literal medium.

Goodness was not a trait you acquired; it was a value you practiced when you were on the verge of doing evil.

I'm always looking over my shoulder, needing to stay ahead of the game.

My sister and my brother, of whom I have not spoken before, were considerably older than I; it seemed almost as if we belonged to different generations.