In their pretty paintings [Monet and Renoir and Degas] wanted to describe the fleeting photons absorbed by the eye, to describe nature entirely in terms of its illumination.

[T]he universe is the answer, but damned if we know the question.

We can try to imagine the pre-Big Bang universe: timeless, featureless, but in some unimaginable way beholden to the laws of physics.

Democritus: Have you seen anything inside quarks?
Mercedes: [shaking her head, smiling] As far as we can tell, quarks and leptons are as good an approximation to points as you can get.
Democritus: [jumping up and down, clapping, laughing hysterically] Atomos! Finally.

The laws of nature must have existed before even time began in order for the beginning to happen.

Scientists, more often than not, are people …

The universe is what it is because it was what it was.

He was a guy who talked with commas, like a heavy novel.

The cops don’t like me too well, but I know a couple I get along with.