If we are machines, then in principle at least, we should be able to build machines out of other stuff, which are just as alive as we are.

Much to the surprise of the builders of the first digital computers, programs written for them usually did not work.

Artificial intelligence is a tool, not a threat

When I look out in the future, I can't imagine a world, 500 years from now, where we don't have robots everywhere.

If you're doing something radically new, you need a team that's willing to go on a ride that's very different from anything they've encountered before.

I begin by looking for megatrends, changes in the world that will create major new demands. My goal is to create a company that can be there to meet those demands.

When people lose faith in the idea, you have to let them go, because they start to undermine it for everyone else.

My talent is getting things to work that people think are many decades in the future. I say we can make them happen now.

I'd rather have half of my idea change the world than my whole idea be a few papers in a journal.

I moved to MIT from Stanford in 1984 to teach, and became the founding director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab.

Hands-on experience is the best way to learn about all the interdisciplinary aspects of robotics.

There is always a light somewhere in the darkness to guide you to happiness.

FORMA PAUPERIS. [Latin] In the character of a poor person - a method by which a litigant without money for lawyers is considerately permitted to lose his case.

Fallen myths can instill venom.

Every day when I sit down to play, I learn something new.

An editorial writer might consult a reporter to see what she thinks, if it is what she covers. But they are entirely independent.

I blame Hollywood for skewing perspectives. Life is just a big romantic comedy to them, and if you meet cute, happily ever-after is a forgone conclusion.

Sometimes models are surprisingly smart.

One hundred years ago, the slave was freed. One hundred years later, the Negro remains in bondage to the color of his skin.

I always get very fit if I'm going away filming for two months in Afghanistan or wherever.

Grinning like a necrophiliac in a morgue.