Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why.

我没法和懒人相处，我们讲的不是同一种语言，我不了解懒人，也不想去了解。

I am not a political person by nature. I don't think writers should be political persons. But in South Africa, you can't keep politics out of your life.

I don't have any particular recipe [for developing new proofs] ... It is the reason why doing research is challenging as well as attractive. It's like being lost in a jungle and trying to use all the knowledge that you can gather to come up with some new tricks, and with some luck you might find a way out.

The environment shapes behavior through the mechanism of reinforcement.

The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.