The point of mythology or myth is to point to the horizon and to point back to ourselves: This is who we are this is where we came from and this is where we're going. And a lot of Western society over the last hundred years - the last 50 years really - has lost that. We have become rather aimless and wandering.

We would like to get to a point in our society where people really are colorblind and this message would not have to be told anymore. Unfortunately we're not there yet.

The trouble is it's very difficult to pin-point the most important thing because Aids affects everyone in different levels of society differently and you have to respond to it differently.

I think the enemy is self-censorship. In a free society the biggest danger is that you're afraid to the point where you censor yourself.

A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point of doubtful sanity.

There is no point to samba if it doesn't make you smile.

The modern mind tends to be more and more critical and analytical in spirit hence it must devise for itself an engine of expression which is logically defensible at every point and which tends to correspond to the rigorous spirit of modern science.

My point has always been that ever since the Industrial Revolution science fiction has been the most important genre there is.

I think it's science and physics are just starting to learn from all these experiments. These experiments have been carried out hundreds and hundreds of times in all sorts of ways that no physicist really questions the end point. I think that these experiments are very clearly telling us that consciousness is limitless and the ultimate reality.

Like many students I found the drudgery of real experiments and the slowness of progress a complete shock and at my low points I contemplated other alternative careers including study of the philosophy or sociology of science.