“I think the whole thing that Jamie [Hyneman] and I have in working together is that we are constantly simplifying each other’s designs,”

It’s sort of a mental attitude about critical thinking and curiosity.

Nearly every one of these – from R2D2 to Hellboy’s revolver – ends with the paint job. And it’s not just cosmetic.

The ‘Mythbusters’ crew, we monitor the Discovery boards, we look for the new ideas that are being forwarded on those boards, and we keep track of what’s going on, we keep updated.

Deadlines refine the mind. They remove variables like exotic materials and processes that take too long.

If I haven’t had any long term psychological side effects from all the things I’ve already done on this show, this isn’t gonna hurt much more.

it was actually mummified, skin and all – but in a fit of space-saving zeal, they actually cut off the head and they cut off the feet and they burned the rest in a bonfire.

I am incrementally a pessimist, but I see the international debate that Edward Snowden has engendered, and I think this is exactly where the discussion should be. So, I would say I’m more optimistic than pessimistic.

They’re not very good ideas, but at least they’re ideas!

It may not look pretty, but it gets the job done.

I’ve meditated extensively on my family, my future, my past actions and what did and didn’t work for me about them.

Sometimes my brain writes a check that reality can’t cash.

How hard can it be to blow up a room full of gasoline?!

I reject your reality and substitute my own.

The idea of an ordered and elegant universe is a lovely one.

Learning to know something in its totality in my head, and then putting together all the constituent parts into a cohesive whole.

You wake up and the world says, ‘Oops, it’s too much fun to go to school, you’ve got to stay home and deal with the snow!’

I’m constantly scared. I’m constantly fearful of what’s to come and people don’t realize that.

The hardest thing as an actor is that you work really hard constantly for these roles, and you invest so much in it.

I want to make sure people are constantly surprised and interested.

We are constantly affecting the world.

And you can constantly look back when you’re in some sort of fix and say, “Well, on so-and-so film, we did this, and it worked out fine.”

When you’re dealing with an ambivalent relationship, you’re constantly on guard, grappling with questions of trust.

I mean, it’s hard to talk about death without realizing that’s our end too, right? I am constantly aware of death.

It’s not that I want to be, but it’s a fascination of the mind and it plays a role in why I want to live my life a certain way.