"Music is the effort we make to explain to ourselves how our brains work. We listen to Bach transfixed because this is listening to a human mind."

"It is from the progeny of this parent cell that we all take our looks we still share genes around, and the resemblance of the enzymes of grasses to those of whales is in fact a family resemblance."

"The cloning of humans is on most of the lists of things to worry about from Science, along with behaviour control, genetic engineering, transplanted heads, computer poetry and the unrestrained growth of plastic flowers."

"Survival, in the cool economics of biology, means simply the persistence of one's own genes in the generations to follow."

"After 'The Hobbit,' I have no idea if things will change. I suspect if I still want to act I will have to put in the hard yards, not rest on my laurels. A lot of it is right place, right time, but I enjoy the challenge, constantly refining my craft, not taking it too seriously but never taking it for granted."

"I push every day against forces that say you have to go faster, be more effective, be more productive, you have to constantly outdo yourself, you have to constantly outdo your neighbor - all of the stuff that creates an incredibly productive society, but also a very neurotic one."

"The only failure is not to try."

"The question whether the long effort to put an end to war can succeed without another major convulsion challenges not only our minds but our sense of responsibility."