Some of the greatest things, as I understand, they have come about by serendipity, the greatest discoveries.

I’m greedy for that satisfaction of doing something hard and knowing that, even though I was afraid I couldn’t do it, that somehow I can deliver.

The thing is when you’re… well-enough known, you get asked to speak places, and they don’t really think about whether or not you’re qualified. They just want somebody that will be a drawing card for...

I don’t watch that much TV, so I can’t compare one show to another. When I watch television, I watch people talking to one another usually or a science show where they show me microbes,...

You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.

Achingly funny as it was, Larry Gelbart’s writing gave off sparks that turned a hard light on the way we are.

It’s very important for us to see that science is done by people, not just brains but whole human beings, and sometimes at great cost.

I’m most at home on the stage. I was carried onstage for the first time when I was six months old.

He knew there was something wrong, but there wasn’t even a name for it in those days.

Listening is being able to be changed by the other person.

I know there’s a creative side to artists to – pardon me – there’s a creative side to scientists already, but there may be an artistic side, too, waiting to break free.

If scientists can’t communicate with the public, with policy makers, with one another, the future is going to be held back. We’re not going to have the future that we could have.

I find myself going to places where I really have no business, speaking to these people in a whole other field that I have no extensive knowledge of. But I do it very often because...

There’s a vacancy now that no president can fill, no power on Earth can fill, … Others will step in and fill in his shoes excellently. But no one can replace the unique presence that...

I’m an angry person, angrier than most people would imagine, I get flashes of anger. What works for me is working out when it’s useful to use that anger.

When people are laughing, they’re generally not killing one another.

In 2003, I almost died of an intestinal blockage when I was on a mountain in Chile, filming a segment for ‘Scientific American Frontiers.’

I think most people are interested in our origins; once we understand, it might be easier to become the people we’d like to be. Or, better, become the people we think we already are.

Awards can give you a tremendous amount of encouragement to keep getting better, no matter how young or old you are.

Backstage life is terrific training for an actor, seeing shows from the wings.

Kids are natural scientists.

Really top-notch directors, I’ve often worked with them just to see how they work.

When they called me up and asked me if I wanted to work with them, they just told me a little bit about the character and the story. They hadn’t finished writing it yet. He’s...

It’s a funny feeling to work with people who you consider your colleagues and to realize that they actually are young enough to be your children.

I used to not want to die in any way but in my sleep when I was a young man. I’d like to die awake now, if possible, with people around me who love me.

My father sang well, and he was a handsome man. When he walked down the street, people sometimes mistook him for Cary Grant and asked for his autograph.

After a while I started to think of that as an image of something that went a lot deeper than the dead dog, which is you can’t bring back anything to life.

Others will step in and do his job with excellence. But no one can replace the unique person that was Peter.

When I was about ten years old, I gave my teacher an April Fool’s sandwich, which had a dead goldfish in it.

Be fair with others, but then keep after them until they’re fair with you.

Anyone I know who’s almost died has come out of it, at least for a while, looking at things differently.

I used to read science fiction a lot, and I still like science fiction when it is a model of how we really are and to see ourselves from another perspective.

Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in while, or the light won’t come in.

I read science, because to me, that’s extremely exciting. It’s like a great detective story, and it’s happening right in front of us.

My mother didn’t try to stab my father until I was six, but she must have shown signs of oddness before that.

Usually, comedy shows only influence other comedy shows. ‘M*A*S*H’ is one of the few comedies that influenced dramatic shows as well.

When the greatest hero in the history of my party, Abraham Lincoln, debated, he didn’t need any rules, … We could junk the rules.

The meaning of life is life.

I’ve been lucky enough to live through all the things that are supposed to give meaning to our lives, like parenting, grandparenting, art, celebrity. All these things you expect meaning to come from, and sometimes...

The whole question of fiduciary responsibility is a very old concept. You could make a movie about someone making that rule at any point in history, and within a few months, it will turn out...

And I think belief is one of those things that comes to people in their own way. And just because I believe in something doesn’t mean I think that you should.

I did many of them on ‘M*A*S*H,’

If I can’t get the girl, at least give me more money.

It’s too bad I’m not as wonderful a person as people say I am, because the world could use a few people like that.

I don’t miss directing at all, and I don’t miss screenwriting either because somebody’s always telling you to do something different.

I’ve had many uncanny experiences. I think it’s hard to be alive and not have them. But I don’t know if I can decide what that means or what they are.

Laugh at yourself, but don’t ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don’t leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory.

You can watch actors create their illusions, but if you don’t see where they get the pigeons from, you don’t really know how they’re doing it.

No matter how big the audience is going to be. I’m interested in doing things that are fun.

Why would you give money to somebody whose work you don’t understand?