Where we have good, testable explanations, they then have to be tested, and we drop the ones that fail the tests.

Quantum computation is a distinctively new way of harnessing nature. It will be the first technology that allows useful tasks to be performed in collaboration between parallel universes.

Feeling insignificant because the universe is large has exactly the same logic as feeling inadequate for not being a cow.

It is possible to build a virtual-reality generator whose repertoire includes every possible environment.

Our best theories are not only truer than common sense, they make more sense than common sense...

Every problem that is interesting is also soluble.

Base metals can be transmuted into gold by stars, and by intelligent beings who understand the processes that power stars, but by nothing else in the universe.

The whole [scientific] process resembles biological evolution. A problem is like an ecological niche, and a theory is like a gene or a species which is being tested for viability in that niche.

No precautions, and no precautionary principle, can avoid problems that we do not yet foresee. We need a stance of problem-fixing, not just problem-avoidance.

The overwhelming majority of theories are rejected because they contain bad explanations, not because they fail experimental tests.

Humans may or may not have cosmic significance, and if they do, it will be by hitching a ride on the objective centrality of knowledge in the cosmic scheme of things.

I regard the afterlife to be a fairy story for people that are afraid of the dark

The most important question I ask myself as a parent is this. How can I best help my children be fully themselves and happy with who they are in the world, however they show up.

There is no place to hide but in the blood of the Lamb.

There's a wall between you and what you want and you got to leap it.

In the midst of a burning-hot shaming, calling for patience and context and understanding and empathy can really land you in trouble.

Github is an excellent hosting service; I have nothing against it at all.

If you have someone on the set for the hair, why would you not have someone for the words?

We are all, right now, living the life we choose.

There is always a state of anxiety, of searching and delving for style.

A movie has its own fate, which often doesn’t depend on the performances of the director and actors.