In the 18th century James Hargreaves invented the Spinning Jenny and Richard Arkwright pioneered the water-propelled spinning frame which led to the mass production of cotton. This was truly revolutionary. The cotton manufacturers created a whole new class of people - the urban proletariat. The structure of society itself would never be the same.

Companies that pollute should be taxed so that a product's cost to society is reflected in the price of that product.

The product of the artist has become less important than the fact of the artist. We wish to absorb this person. We wish to devour someone who has experienced the tragic. In our society this person is much more important than anything he might create.

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 society based on production is only productive not creative.

Carl took on the military-industrial complex. He campaigned around the world for an end to the production of weapons of mass destruction. To him it was a perversion of science.

From my earliest acquaintance with the science of political economy it has been evident to my mind that capital was the product of labor and that therefore in its best analysis there could be no natural conflict between capital and labor.

Except in very narrow cases where there's breakthrough science that needs patent production worrying about competitors is a waste of time. If you can't out iterate someone who is trying to copy you you're toast anyway.

I've started a company called Tall Girl Productions and we've got our first project that is purely producing not writing with a writer named Evan Daugherty. It's for NBC it's called 'Afterthought ' and it's science fiction-ish. That's fun.

The product of mental labor - science - always stands far below its value because the labor-time necessary to reproduce it has no relation at all to the labor-time required for its original production.