Mostly, I was only interested in television as a kid, and the majority of reading material I collected was an adjunct to that central concern, comic books and magazines included.
When I was a kid, I liked books that just seemed so dense you could lose yourself in them for a whole afternoon. They were like their own whole world.
Social reality is so complicated that, once you join one team or the other, you become specialized in detecting certain patterns, but you become blind to other patterns.
There's an enormous difference between voting for a candidate because you hate another ethnic group and voting for a candidate because he's a member of your ethnic group.
Liberals have difficulty understanding the Tea Party because they think it is a bunch of selfish racists. But I think the Tea Party is driven in large part by concerns about fairness.
Religiosity developed because successful religions made groups more efficient at turning resources into offspring." (including art, cathedrals, cities, earthworks, etc?)
When, as an undergraduate, I began experiments on these slime molds in 1940, only one other person, Kenneth Raper, was working on them at that time. In fact, he discovered the model species Dictyostelium discoideum, which is the species used in the m...
The one thing I regret was that my work required an enormous amount of my time, and a lot of travel.
Boyd 'Bible' Swan: Wait until you see it. Norman Ellison: See what? Boyd 'Bible' Swan: What a man can do to another man.
[to Emma] Norman Ellison: You see this right here? That is your heart line. You're gonna have one great love in your life.
Coach Norman Dale: I've seen you guys can shoot but there's more to the game than shooting. There's fundamentals and defense.
Coach Norman Dale: Five players on the floor functioning as one single unit: team, team, team - no one more important that the other.
Wilbur 'Shooter' Flatch: You gotta promise me you won't get kicked outta no more games! Coach Norman Dale: Scout's honor.
Coach Norman Dale: You know, if everyone is as nice as you, country hospitality is gonna get an awful name. Myra Fleener: What a pleasant thing to say.
Coach Norman Dale: [after sitting an injured Everett] Strap, in for Everett. Don't shoot the ball unless you're under the basket all by yourself!
It will, of course, be understood that directly or indirectly, soon or late, every advance in the sciences of human nature will contribute to our success in controlling human nature and changing it to the advantage of the common weal.
I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It's by the nature of his deep inner soul... we're required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream.
An economically confident America has - since becoming a world power at the start of the 20th century - tended toward global engagement. It is during times of economic stress (1930s, 1970s) that America has become more withdrawn.
Some things tend not to work so well for science - things that rely on substantial written contributions by key experts are a case in point - but even there I tend to keep an open mind, because it may just be a case of finding the right formula.
I fell in love with Alan Ayckbourn the day I met him and, starting with 'The Norman Conquests,' went on to do eight plays with him. He tells you just what you want to know and has a brilliant way of solving problems.
My psycho-analytic work has convinced me that when in the baby's mind the conflicts between love and hate arise, and the fears of losing the loved one become active, a very important step is made in development.
