One can choose to obsess over prescriptive rules, but they have no more to do with human language than the criteria for judging cats at a cat show have to do with mammalian biology.

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.

A man does not need encouragement to lose his heart.

Best be yourself, imperial, plain, and true.

I've realized that I love all forms of music and get excited when any artist goes crazy and creates something that is an experience.

Gerry Ford is easy to spot on the course. He drives the cart with the red cross painted on top.

One ought to be against racism and sexism because they are wrong, not because one is black or one is female.

My time in Moscowmade a man of memade me an artistthere was a reality and a brutality of life that I think was very important, as a young American, for me to see.

You have to be damn certain you're putting something better in its place.

The lack of facts holds you back. The odds are stacked against a weak mind.

Silence is an answer to a wise man.

When we love, we are courageous; and courage has nothing to do with being fearless, it's about being willing to experience fear, even dread, to do what we must, without guarantee of outcome.