We're as clever as we think we are but we'll be a lot cleverer when we learn to use not just one brain but to pool huge numbers of brains. We're at a level technologically where we can share information and think collectively about our problems. We do it in science all the time - there's no reason why we can't do it in other endeavors.

Much of today's public anxiety about science is the apprehension that we may forever be overlooking the whole by an endless obsessive preoccupation with the parts.

Science will explain how but not why. It talks about what is not what ought to be. Science is descriptive not prescriptive it can tell us about causes but it cannot tell us about purposes. Indeed science disavows purposes.

Science fiction films are not about science. They are about disaster which is one of the oldest subjects of art.

What I like about sceptics is that in good science you need critics that make you think: 'Crumbs have I made a mistake here?' If you don't have that continuously you really are up the creek. The good sceptics have done a good service but some of the mad ones I think have not done anyone any favours.

If you start any large theory such as quantum mechanics plate tectonics evolution it takes about 40 years for mainstream science to come around. Gaia has been going for only 30 years or so.

I started out writing much more science fictiony stuff and writing about science fiction.

Mythology and science both extend the scope of human beings. Like science and technology mythology as we shall see is not about opting out of this world but about enabling us to live more intensely within it.

The most watched programme on the BBC after the news is probably 'Doctor Who.' What has happened is that science fiction has been subsumed into modern literature. There are grandparents out there who speak Klingon who are quite capable of holding down a job. No one would think twice now about a parallel universe.

It seems to me that socialists today can preserve their position in academic economics merely by the pretense that the differences are entirely moral questions about which science cannot decide.

Of course in science there are things that are open to doubt and things need to be discussed. But among the things that science does know evolution is about as certain as anything we know.

Science is always discovering odd scraps of magical wisdom and making a tremendous fuss about its cleverness.

Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other yet do not devote yourself to one branch exclusively. Strive to get clear notions about all. Give up no science entirely for science is but one.

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.

Only two things are infinite the universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the former.

Many things have been said about what happened but I don't know either. Maybe someday. One thing I'm sure of is that all the things that have happened to me good and bad happy and sad have made me what I am today.

'A Bug's Life' is a really funny movie and the characters have such different personalities. The movie is happy and then gets really sad and I'm like W'hoa I'm feeling this way and this movie is about bugs!'

Since it's based on my parents it's more emotionally close to me than some of my more surreal plays. And then I like the balance of the comic and the sad. It should play as funny but you should care about the characters and feel sad for them.

Film-makers are always going to be interested in making movies that plug into society around them. That's what a vibrant artistically alert community should be doing. After all it would be sad if we only made films about alien robots.

It's the sad thing about entertainment it's not always about who is the best.

If I could be more vague I'd write more about people in my life but I hate hurting feelings or making people feel uncomfortable. I've done that before. Unless they're sad songs. Those get finished fast but the mean ones often end up at the back of the bottom drawer and it's probably for the best.

I'm terribly sad about Farrah's passing. She was incredibly brave and God will be welcoming her with open arms.

I found out about reviews early on. They're mostly written by sad men on bad afternoons. That's probably why I'm less angry than some writers who are so narcissistic they consider every line of every review even a thoughtful one as major treason.

I think it's sad to me that I had to make a decision to not play the game that I feel like I'm best at and that I love. But if it was just about the game itself I'd be there in a heartbeat. But that's not how the real world works.