That attitude that fighting is probably not fair but you have to defend yourself anyway and damage the enemy has been profoundly consequential as far as my political activism goes.

Does art have a future? Performance genres like opera theater music and dance are thriving all over the world but the visual arts have been in slow decline for nearly 40 years. No major figure of profound influence has emerged in painting or sculpture since the waning of Pop Art and the birth of Minimalism in the early 1970s.

The commonality between science and art is in trying to see profoundly - to develop strategies of seeing and showing.

The daily act of writing remains as demanding and maddening as it was before and the pleasure you get from writing - rare but profound - remains at the true heart of the enterprise. On their best days writers all over the world are winning Pulitzers all alone in their studios with no one watching.

Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone.

About the time I turned 50 I experienced the profound biological change that often accompanies women at that age. Also I put two kids in college and lost both of my parents so I'm no longer somebody's daughter.

He has a profound respect for old age. Especially when it's bottled.