As a kid, I was scared of losing my mind. In Terrell, Texas, where I grew up, there was a guy that would walk down the street talking to himself. And I used to watch him and feel uneasy. And there was a sanitarium where people would say, 'That's wher...
Once I'd reached the point where I could squirrel away more than 30 digits a minute in memory palaces, I still only sporadically used the techniques to memorize the phone numbers of people I actually wanted to call. I found it was just too simple to ...
Since our technology is really just an extension of ourselves, we don’t have to have contempt for its manipulability in the way we might with actual people. It’s all one big endless loop. We like the mirror and the mirror likes us. To friend a pe...
Chimps can do all sorts of things we thought that only we could do - like tool-making and abstraction and generalisation. They can learn a language - sign language - and they can use the signs. But when you think of our intellects, even the brightest...
I'm a pretty laid-back kind of guy. What I've always wanted to do is set up situations in our company where if people who worked there needed help, we would try to help them, and at the same token if the company needed help from people, they would he...
Your pony, he said as he stomped toward me. "I'm the farrier who is here to fix your pony." "I thought you were a Hells Angel," I said. "I used to be," he replied. "But fighting all the time and being really drunk and nasty got boring. So now I just ...
I have always thought that work is as common and fine as air, something that we become a part of. I am drawn to the out of doors, to the ordinary pleasures of everyday work. Alice used to say that if I was a bird I'd be the first one to sing, the way...
I think all of us thought that by the '70s, at the latest the '80s, all the world's problems would be solved and everyone would be getting along fine. And instead we saw that Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated that year, Robert F. Kennedy died. ...
Two hundred years from now people will find out how we have been influenced by our culture in ways we have yet to recognize and they'll wonder, "How can those people claim to be Christians who lived back there in 2009?". There will be things people w...
First, I wanted to be Chris Farley. When I was growing up, Chris Farley was still on the stages and fun to us. In my house, John Belushi was king. I didn't grow up when he was - I was born in '78 - the reruns of Belushi in 'Animal House,' and knowing...
There's a lot of wishful thinking that somehow we'll replace fossil fuels with alternative energy sources, but they remain far from reality. We're not going to run Wal-Mart, Disney World, and the interstate highway system on any combination of altern...
Of course I've had a bunch of broken bones, sprains and I've had five or six concussions, with three serious ones. I also got a real heavy duty blood clot and internal bleeding from where I was shot in the stomach with a beanbag bullet that the polic...
In general President Obama's policies have been very, very skewed and very, very extreme. Like on healthcare for example, I don't think that trying to ram healthcare through was a smart idea politically, because he wasted a lot of capital and now he ...
I owe my dogs much - more than I can say - but they are not my 'companions' - as if we voluntarily chose to hang out together but none of us has authority over the others. I bought and/or acquired them. I own them. I am profoundly responsible for the...
Leah: All right, how about this one? 'Healthy, educated couple seeking infant to join our family of five. You will be compensated. Help us complete the circle of love.' Juno MacGuff: Yeesh, they sound like a cult, is what the sound like! And besides ...
[Dodgson is meeting Nedry at a restaurant in Costa Rica] Dennis Nedry: [waving] Dodgson! Lew Dodgson: [sitting down] You shouldn't use my name. Dennis Nedry: [loudly] Dodgson, Dodgson, we've got Dodgson here! Nobody cares. Nice hat. What are you tryi...
I prefer the night to the day and always stay up very late. Darkness is more peaceful, and I don't like sunshine - it hurts my eyes. When I used to live in more communal circumstances, I had to wait until everyone had gone to bed before I had the pea...
Dr. Frederick Chilton: Crawford is very clever, isn't he, using you? Clarice Starling: What do you mean, sir? Dr. Frederick Chilton: A pretty young woman to turn him on. I don't believe Lecter's even seen a woman in eight years. And oh, are you ever ...
Elin: I use two grams of milk and five thousand kilograms of chocolate and it's always nearly black and then... then I usually pour in more milk but then the glass isn't big enough. Then I have to pour it into a bigger glass, or another glass, if the...
Charlie Hogan: Besides, me and Billy found him first! Teddy: Yeah, Vern told us how you found him! [in a high, mocking voice] Teddy: Oh Billy, I wish we'd never boosted that car! Oh Billy, I think I just turned my Fruit-of-the-Looms into a fudge fact...
Adam: Cabin fever, hon? Barbara: Well, I can't clean anything properly. The vacuum's out in the garage and we can't leave the house. Why don't they tell us something? I mean, where are all the other dead people in the world? Why is it just you and me...
