Most scientists are without exception adorably quirky, and one of the ways of making it more accessible was to try to get readers interested in the person.

I can't think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything.

There are only three things that can kill a farmer: lightning, rolling over in a tractor, and old age.

If you can imagine a man having a vasectomy without anesthetic to the sound of frantic sitar-playing, you will have some idea of what popular Turkish music is like.

That's the trouble with losing your mind; by the time it's gone, it's too late to get it back.

Hunters will tell you that a moose is a wily and ferocious forest creature. Nonsense. A moose is a cow drawn by a three-year-old.

Geologists are never at a loss for paperweights.

Of all the things I am not very good at, living in the real world is perhaps the most outstanding.

Physics is really nothing more than a search for ultimate simplicity, but so far all we have is a kind of elegant messiness.

Protons give an atom its identity, electrons its personality.

Why is it, I wondered, that old people are always so self-centered and excitable? But I just smiled benignly and stood back, comforted by the thought that soon they would be dead.

Don’t try to be useful. Try to be yourself: that is enough, and that makes all the difference

Embrace the possibility of a fulfilled dream.

Tough times are opportunities to prove to yourself that your mind is tougher than all challenges.

I get nice letters, but really I have no idea. I just try to enthuse people. You've been married for 31 years.

I was in a supermarket and I saw Paul Newman's face on salad dressing and spaghetti sauce....I thought he was missing.

I really like nice forearms - nice strong hands and forearms. I love that because then they can wear a watch really well.

He can develop sense and style, in the manner of distinguished modern prose, in which event he may be sure that the result will not fall into any objective form.

There is this quality, in things, of the right way seeming wrong at first.

Of all crimes the worst Is to steal the glory From the great and brave, Even more accursed Than to rob the grave.