"Patience and tenacity are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness."

"No delusion is greater than the notion that method and industry can make up for lack of mother-wit, either in science or in practical life."

"Science commits suicide when it adopts a creed."

"Science and literature are not two things, but two sides of one thing."

"There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read."

"My culture-deprived, aspirational mother dragged me once a month from our northern suburb - where the word art never came up - to the Art Institute of Chicago. I hated it."

"As an actor, there is room for a certain amount of creativity, but you're always ultimately going to be saying somebody else's words. I don't think I'd have the stamina, skill or ability to write a novel, but I'd love to write short stories and poetry, because those are my two passions."

"So I really began as a failed poet - although when I first wanted to be a writer, I learned to write prose by reading poetry."