“We wouldn’t be able to survive. We would have a hard time surviving if we were transported to the time when dinosaurs were around.”

It’s a fact of life that there will be oil spills, as long as oil is moved from place to place, but we must have provisions to deal with them, and a capability that is commensurate with the size of the oil shipments.

I would love to slip into the skin of a fish and know what it’s like to be one. They have senses that I can only dream about.

Ocean acidification – the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that is turning the oceans increasingly acid.

My first encounter with the ocean was on the Jersey Shore when I was three years old and I got knocked over by a wave.

There’s something missing about how we’re informing the youngsters coming along about what matters in the world. We teach them the numbers and the letters, but we fail to communicate the importance of our connection to the living world.

Hold up a mirror and ask yourself what you are capable of doing, and what you really care about. Then take the initiative – don’t wait for someone else to ask you to act.

Protecting vital sources of renewal – unscathed marshes, healthy reefs, and deep-sea gardens – will provide hope for the future of the Gulf, and for all of us.

When I first ventured into the Gulf of Mexico in the 1950s, the sea appeared to be a blue infinity too large, too wild to be harmed by anything that people could do.

I want everybody to go jump in the ocean to see for themselves how beautiful it is, how important it is to get acquainted with fish swimming in the ocean, rather than just swimming with lemon slices and butter.

Bottom trawling is a ghastly process that brings untold damage to sea beds that support ocean life.

No water, no life. No blue, no green.

America gains most when individuals have great freedom to pursue personal goals without undue government interference.

Ice ages have come and gone. Coral reefs have persisted.

A lumberman will look at a forest and see so many board feet of lumber. I see a living city.

I have lots of heroes: anyone and everyone who does whatever they can to leave the natural world better than they found it.

I have heard endlessly that fish are so resilient that there is no way that you could exterminate a species. We are learning otherwise.

It’s the Tiger Woods effect. What he was able to accomplish at such a young age – he drew me to the game, and I can only speak for myself, but a lot of the players that are my age saw Tiger in his prime when we were all teenagers.

The thing I would like to be able to do is to make the music sound right no matter what it is. If somebody else wants to have a label for it, then that’s their business.

We would all like to be able to live an uncluttered life, a simple life, a good life.

Nobody wants to get hurt. Nobody wants to hurt anybody. We would all like to be able to live an uncluttered life.

The great thing is the thing of being able to see things through many points of view. That’s enlarging.

I’ve got a great sense of humor, and if I’m able to say or do something in a movie that people feel like they want to repeat, that’s hugely flattering.

I am not able to begin. I simply skip what should be the beginning.

I want my fans to feel like we’re always in touch. Because without ’em, I wouldn’t be able to do any of this.