My friends are people who like building cool stuff. We always have this joke about people who want to just start companies without making something valuable. There's a lot of that in Silicon Valley.

I remember being on film sets when I was younger and only men got to do the cool action movies. So I thought 'Maybe I'll get to produce one day and get to do cool stuff too ' which is what happened when we did 'Charlie's Angels.' Starting my production company was a big turning point for me.

I'm a mirror. If you're cool with me I'm cool with you and the exchange starts. What you see is what you reflect. If you don't like what you see then you've done something. If I'm standoffish that's because you are.

You know the diversity that America has is so special. It's starting to really become a cool thing for young people.

When you get to your mid-20s you start to feel responsibilities for the things that you do and the people around you. It's a cool age.

When the first computers started to come in we tried to digitalize the seismological equipment.

There were no PCs when I started programming on computers.

So the thing I realized rather gradually - I must say starting about 20 years ago now that we know about computers and things - there's a possibility of a more general basis for rules to describe nature.

I started getting into Internet technologies and computers. I wasn't especially interested in being a musician but I wound up finding my way back to being interested in music through computers.

That's the new way - with computers computers computers. That's the way we can have the cell survive and get some new information in high resolution. We started about five years ago and today I think we have reached the target.

Diaspora starts about a thousand years from now. Most of human civilisation has moved inside computers essentially a major branch of our descendants consists of conscious software.

I started on an Apple II which I had bought at the very end of 1978 for half of my annual income. I made $4 500 a year and I spent half of it on the computer.

The power of the computer is starting to spread.

Computers are famous for being able to do complicated things starting from simple programs.

I don't start with a design objective I start with a communication objective. I feel my project is successful if it communicates what it is supposed to communicate.

When first starting to work with someone you try to get them in the same mindset that you were in when you were successful and I realized the best thing you can ever do is realize that they are not you. They have a different persona and mindset and you have to figure out what works best within your communication with that athlete.

I started on the use of the Internet for scientific communication. Our research group was one of the very first to make really systematic use of it as a way of managing research projects.

If we ever start communicating with living creatures from other planets the number one priority is how are you going to communicate information? Even between different cultures here on Earth you get into communication problems.

Any problem big or small within a family always seems to start with bad communication. Someone isn't listening.

I'd be happy to be taken as a woman - and that's what I was initially trying to do when I started throwing on dresses and stuff. But that wasn't going to happen because everyone kept calling me sir. So I thought I'd change the method and just start wearing what I wanted to wear.

I had a very insightful friend who warned me back when I stopped reading scripts 'It's easier to change directions while you're still moving.' If you stop it's harder to get started again. I still don't think I made the wrong decision but he was right.

I was born left-handed but I was made to use my other hand. When I was writing 'Famished Road ' which was very long I got repetitive stress syndrome. My right wrist collapsed so I started using my left hand. The prose I wrote with my left hand came out denser so later on I had to change it.

As far as friendships go things change even without the fame. People start moving on. I have a few friends that are married and are starting to have kids and I'm like 'Oh my goodness gracious - that's so insane.' I also have friends who are just doing their own thing which is cool.

There is at least one point in the history of any company when you have to change dramatically to rise to the next level of performance. Miss that moment - and you start to decline.