“When Hollywood sees a good story about a man who sells confidence, they see themselves and they like it.”

I think, there are many people who are much smarter than I am, and many, many, many who are much harder-working than I am, but in terms of the range of my activities, they’re unique.

I’m an economist by training. I don’t really work as an economist. I only worked briefly as an economist.

That was horrifying beyond words, and that’s where science – in my opinion, this is just an opinion – that’s where science leads you.

I am scared of getting old. I am scared of being ill.

Keep on beginning and failing. Each time you fail, start all over gain, and you will grow stronger until have accomplished a purpose – not the one you began with perhaps, but one you’ll be glad to remember.

Sleep more at night. If it’s allowed at work or home, take a nap in the afternoon. You’ll be amazed at how much better you’ll feel.

I’m not a Mensa member. I have no idea where that rumor came from. I never have been, and I doubt if I ever will be.

I think Darwinism as a theory explaining evolution within species is incredibly brilliant – just unbelievably, incredibly brilliant.

Evolutionism as taught by Darwinism has nothing to say about how life originated. Has nothing to say about how the governing principles in the universe, gravity, thermodynamics, motion, how those originated. It’s got some gigantic missing pieces.

I have always been very diversified, so I have never suffered a catastrophic loss. I spread my money around the way a large institutional investor does. I use different brokerage firms. I manage some of my accounts myself.

The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want.

I’d say the main way people get into terrible financial trouble is just to spend too much money relative to their income, and that is an endemic problem in the United States of America, and that’s the kind of thing that should be taught about in schools.

I always assumed scientists were free to ask any question, pursue any line of inquiry without fear or reprisal.

When I seemed to be irritable or sad, my father would quote the learned Dr. Knight, and then say, ‘Just go to sleep.’ Like all smart aleck kids, I thought the advice was silly. But as I’ve grown older, I’ve realized just how smart Knight was.

I am so in love with just lying in bed listening to Mozart.

We are not supposed to be all equal. Let’s just forget that. We are supposed to have equal rights under law. If we do that, we have done enough.

Crude at first [the short story] received a literary polish in the press, but its dominant quality remained. It was concise and condense, yet suggestive. It was delightfully extravagant – or a miracle of understatement

I don’t take anything personally. I am a secondary character in other people’s stories. I know that whatever people say about me is just a projection of their image of me. It has nothing to do with me.

No book is a chapter, no chapter tells the whole story, no mistake defines who we are. Hope makes our lives page turners.

Mummy, I woke today and there was a Lincoln Log in me sock drawer! … That’s the story of Jesus.

I’ve never pursued a role. I always hear stories about actors going after parts and I’m, like, ‘How do they do that?’ It seems so weird. It seems like a total myth or something.

You can tell how good a filmmaker is if you can turn the sound down but you can still feel the story.

Stories aren’t the beauty of what did happen. They’re the beauty of what could happen.

Tell your story. That’s the secret of immortality. The one true way to live forever.