My parents gave me a small telescope, then I built my own, and one thing led to another. So thats how I ended up going from being a hobby astronomer to a professional astronomer.

When we discover New Earth - a planet we could call home - the question of the plurality of worlds will come front and center, reminding us yet again that we are not the center of the universe.

Deep and elegant explanations relate to natural or social phenomena and the observer often has no place in them.

In science, it is rare that a transformational change occurs during our lifetimes.

It feels great to discover a planet, just like any discovery in science, except that it has more of the feel of exploration - you can go back and look at it. However, I can never visit.

Life and the universe compare to each other like a child and a parent, parent and offspring.

We love our planet Earth. We should - it is our home, and there's no place like home. There can't ever be a better place than Earth.

Money solves nothing but it eases everything.

Dare to exhaust yourself with all the opportunities this day offers.

Everyone knew you shouldn't go biting into fruit offered to you by magical creatures in the woods, even if you'd thought until just five minutes ago that such stories were, you know, only stories.

The life of the law has not been logic it has been experience.

I said Ted Cruz has been lying because if you say something that isn't true, and you say it over and over again, and you know that it's not true, there's no other word for it.

You can't use irony as a way of disengaging with the difficult or emotional aspects of life.

I always write with my .357 magnum handy. Why? Well, you never know when God may try to interfere.

Are you doing what you're doing today because you want to do it, or because it's what you were doing yesterday?

The antidote to hubris, to overweening pride, is irony, that capacity to discover and systematize ideas.

The last thing you want is an injured actor. That, or having to use a stuntman too much.