"It cannot be said often enough that science fiction as a genre is incredibly educational - and I'm speaking the written science fiction, not 'Star Trek.' Science fiction writers tend to fill their books if they're clever with little bits of interesting stuff and real stuff."

"They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance."

"The intelligence of the creature known as a crowd, is the square root of the number of people in it."

"I believe it should be possible for someone stricken with a serious and ultimately fatal illness to choose to die peacefully with medical help, rather than suffer."

"I now bid farewell to the country of my birth - of my passions - of my death a country whose misfortunes have invoked my sympathies - whose factions I sought to quell - whose intelligence I prompted to a lofty aim - whose freedom has been my fatal dream."

"Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye."

"Even if we die at 100, we're still dying young. I want at least 700 years. There's a lot of travelling and books to read and movies to see. I'm not going to squeeze it all in in 85 years."

"Anyone who has dead straight hair wants curls."