Unfortunately, creative people are at their most creative when writing their autobiographies.

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.

He that loves pleasure must for pleasure fall.

I just say the moral out of my life is don't quit at age 65, maybe your boat hasn't come in yet. Mine hadn't.

Every play should be 90 minutes. There would be so many more theatre-goers if plays were shorter.

A truly educated man never ceases to learn.

For Fang, getting out of bed in the morning is a career move.

Any self-prompt that reminds you to focus on flow not ebb, contributes to your greater sense of abundance. (53)

Be quick to make decisions, but slow to give up.

Marius was of the temperament that sinks into grief and remains there; Cosette was of the sort that plunges in and comes out again.

O Lord, help me not to despise or oppose what I do not understand.