Often times when you face such an overwhelming challenge as global climate change it can be somewhat daunting - it's kind of like trying to lose weight which I know something about.

I think fear is what keeps us from going over the edge. I mean as a race car driver I don't think what makes a good race car driver is a fearless person. I think it's somebody that is comfortable being behind the wheel of something that's somewhat out of control.

In the US there is basically one party - the business party. It has two factions called Democrats and Republicans which are somewhat different but carry out variations on the same policies. By and large I am opposed to those policies. As is most of the population.

We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics nor all logic but it is somewhat beauty and poetry.

Americans have always had an ambivalent attitude toward intelligence. When they feel threatened they want a lot of it and when they don't they regard the whole thing as somewhat immoral.