My family came in 1635 from England and settled in Williamsburg. Shortly after, they split up; half went to New England and half stayed in Virginia. I'm a Virginian Ballard.

I am an underwater explorer, not a treasure hunter.

The greatest discoveries all start with the question "Why?"

It is a quiet and peaceful place - and a fitting place for the remains of this greatest of sea tragedies to rest.

Well, when I was a kid, I grew up in San Diego next to the ocean. The ocean was my friend - my best friend.

The deep sea is the largest museum on earth, it contains more history than all the museums on land combined, and yet we're only now penetrating it.

If you compare NASA's annual budget to explore the heavens, that one year budget would fund NOAA's budget to explore the oceans for 1,600 years.

Everyone is an explorer. How could you possibly live your life looking at a door and not open it?

Most of the southern hemisphere is unexplored. We had more exploration ships down there during Captain Cook's time than now. It's amazing.

Remember to always dream. More importantly, work hard to make those dreams come true and never give up.

The DEEP SEA has more history in it than all the museums of the world-combined.

I understood drinking to be the gasoline of all adventure.

I would draw my own comic book characters listening to metal. The drawing and music kind of went hand in hand.

Happiness is the ultimate goal. It is the goal of all other goals.

EVERY intense desire is perhaps basically a desire to be different from what we are.

I never thought I would become a television host, but I never thought anybody would pay me to just talk.

Our own epoch is determining, day by day, its own style. Our eyes, unhappily, are unable yet to discern it.

It's been a mystery to me and a disappointment why conversation about health care reform hasn't turned more attention to the subject of food.

Sisterhood - that is, primary and bonding love from women - is, like motherhood, a capacity, not a destiny. It must be chosen, exercised by acts of will.

To appeal to an omnipotent deity is to allow that at any moment the regularities of nature may be ruptured, that miracles may happen.

Beauty is the experience that gives us a sense of joy and a sense of peace simultaneously.