“The ordinary American – as far as I can tell – knows so much less than he did fifty years ago and has such poor work habits compared with fifty years ago that the average multiplicand of knowledge/capabilities is a much smaller number than it was in 1961.”

I did some reading to prep for Expelled. I read one book cover to cover, From Darwin to Hitler , and that was a very interesting book – one of these rare books I wish had been even longer.

If there is no God, why bother to tell the truth? Why not steal?

Academic freedom is being lost by a great many people who dare to challenge Darwinism. That’s a terrifying situation. That’s contrary to the principles of science.

It’s amazing what ordinary people can do if they set out without preconceived notions.

Politics is a thankless occupation; I have no interest in it at all.

My pals, such as they are, in Hollywood, ask me why I love to travel to D.C. so much, why it’s a vacation destination for me. I say, ‘Because I sometimes have perfect days there.’

What’s a good investment? Go home from work early and spend the afternoon throwing a ball around with your son.

Americans are terrified because so many of them have been laid off in recent years and months and they fear that they may be next. Even if they have not been laid off or have not known anyone laid off, they definitely know someone who has lost his home.

Put simply, the rich pay a lot of taxes as a total percentage of taxes collected, but they don’t pay a lot of taxes as a percentage of what they can afford to pay, or as a percentage of what the government needs to close the deficit gap.

It is so great to sleep in safe, glorious, beautiful America. I just cannot get over it.

I don’t like the sound of all the lists he’s making.

If there’s a recession, I’d buy stocks. That’s when you make money: when markets are spooked.

It’s about how Darwin ‘s theory – supposedly concocted by this mild-mannered saintly man, with a flowing white beard like Santa Claus – led to the murder of millions of innocent people.

The banks are not lending, at least from what I see. They were so wild and reckless back in the good times that they got burned terribly.

As to a media personality, well that just happened in large measure because people found me amusing, and I did lots and lots of T.V. news interview shows.

The real stars are wearing body armor in 130-degree heat . . . They’re getting shot at and they don’t have any stunt doubles standing in for them.

I was given some Harry Potter books by a young friend. I wanted to know why young people liked it so much. And I noted that there were some values in Harry Potter that are common to many books that are popular all over the world. In the end,

Life’s scientific, but we don’t know, do we? Not certainly, I mean.

I know there are writers who get up every morning and sit by their typewriter or word processor or pad of paper and wait to write. I don’t function that way. I go through a long period of gestation before I’m even ready to write.

I don’t know which is more discouraging, literature or chickens.

I don’t know if our life has a purpose and I don’t see that it matters. What does matter is that we’re a part. Like a thread in a cloth or a grass-blade in a field. It is and we are. What we do is like wind blowing on the grass.

The misogyny that shapes every aspect of our civilization is the institutionalized form of male fear and hatred of what they have denied and therefore cannot know, cannot share: that wild country, the being of women.

I didn’t know much about my Native American ancestry, but as I got older I became more interested in it.

It’s very difficult to think that you’re with someone that you know, and all of a sudden you don’t know them: it turns out that they betray you. It’s painful, but it’s best to turn the page.