I teach classes 28 weeks of the year, but the rest of the time I do research and write books.

Art works because it appeals to certain faculties of the mind. Music depends on details of the auditory system, painting and sculpture on the visual system. Poetry and literature depend on language.

Why are empirical questions about how the mind works so weighted down with political and moral and emotional baggage?

All our behaviours are a result of neurophysiological activity in the brain. There is no reason to believe there is any magic going on.

I suspect music is auditory cheesecake, an exquisite confection crafted to tickle the sensitive spots of... our mental faculties.

Evolutionary psychology is one of four sciences that are bringing human nature back into the picture.

Thanks to the redundancy of language, yxx cxn xndxrstxnd whxt x xm wrxtxng xvxn xf x rxplxcx xll thx vxwxls wxth xn "x" (t gts lttl hrdr f y dn't vn kn whr th vwls r)

Photography is a kind of virtual reality, and it helps if you can create the illusion of being in an interesting world.

Plants can't very well defend themselves by their behavior, so they resort to chemical warfare, and plants are saturated with toxins and irritants to deter creatures like us who want to eat them.

I would argue that nothing gives life more purpose than the realization that every moment of consciousness is a precious and fragile gift.

Babies are born with the instinct to speak, the way spiders are born with the instinct to spin webs. You don't need to train babies to speak; they just do. But reading is different.

The heart pointed to the brain and said with great disdain, “Those who live their lives in here live the lives most full of fear.

Philosophy is the self-correction by consciousness of its own initial excess of subjectivity.

Ambition has its disappointments to sour us, but never the good fortune to satisfy us.

Surely arrested development consists not in refusing to lose old things but in failing to add new things.

There is a star above us which unites souls of the first order, though worlds and ages separate them.

Today, it's very tempting to create songs by cutting and pasting in the studio.

People are sheep. TV is the shepherd.

Dave Jones got to the final last year and lost in the semi-final this year, so progress has definitely been made

My inspiration came from the land, ... and, of course, from Paul Klee . . . and the poetics of his paintings.

Every single one of the guys that I've written songs about has been tracked down on MySpace by my fans.