"I refuse to give in to despair. I just don’t have time for that. I’m too busy doing science."

“Take advantage of the city! Moving from the West Coast, I found it hard to adjust to New York. And I won’t defend the weather, the subway, or the smell, but there are so many interesting people here. Go to parties, go see a friend-of-a-friend’s terrible show, say yes to weird things. You never know where life will take you here.”

“I started my career as an astrophysicist, and then I realized that nowhere else in the universe is as good as here, right? This is the best planet.”

“I love this planet, and I’m curious about how it works.”

“I just asked a lot of really stupid questions to a lot of really patient people, and they were amazing. They were so generous with their time and so patient with my dumb questions. That’s how I learned, and I’m totally grateful for them.”