I knew it long ago: I'm a compulsive teacher, but I can't teach. The godawful state of today's education system isn't what's stopping me. I lack at least two of the essential qualifications. I cannot 'suffer fools gladly.' The smartest of my pupils would get all my attention, and the rest would have to fend for themselves. And I can't handle being interrupted. Writing is the answer. Whatever I have to teach, my students will select themselves by buying the book. And nobody interrupts a printed page.

To witness titanic events is always dangerous, usually painful, and often fatal.

Stupidity is always a capital crime.

The perversity of the universe tends towards a maximum. The universe is hostile.

If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write.

I know that if I'd had to go and take an exam for acting, I wouldn't have got anywhere. You don't take exams for acting, you take your courage.

I grew up in Cambridge in England, and my love of mathematics dates from those early childhood days.