There's a silly notion that failure's not an option at NASA. Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.

Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.

When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.

People should pursue what they're passionate about. That will make them happier than pretty much anything else.

I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.

I'm extremely confident that solar will be at least a plurality of power, and most likely a majority... in less than 20 years.

Constantly seek criticism. A well thought out critique of what you're doing is as valuable as gold

Optimism, pessimism, f**k that; we're going to make it happen. As God is my bloody witness, I'm hell-bent on making it work.

I think that's the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.

Mars is the only place in the solar system where it's possible for life to become multi-planetarian.

My mentality is that of a samurai. I would rather commit seppuku than fail.

My caregiver mantra is to remember: the only control you have is over the changes you choose to make.

I've always envied people who sleep easily. Their brains must be cleaner, the floorboards of the skull well swept, all the little monsters closed up in a steamer trunk at the foot of the bed.

In general, I almost always watch foreign films.

Humanity is the rich effluvium, it is the waste and the manure and the soil, and from it grows the tree of the arts.

Strange enlightenments are vouchsafed to those who seek the higher places.

I am my own investigation territory.

If you can't help people, then what is the point of being successful?

The president Donald Trump understands, we have to get unity across the world. We really have to make sure that we're doing everything we can to unify everyone against ISIS.

Patti [Smith] was my experiment, to be honest. And the film is what we got out of it. At the end of the day, I learned a lot about how to make a film.