When ATM machines came out and people were prosecuted for robbing ATM machines I don't think anybody thought the banks were against technology because they didn't want their ATM machines lifted.

As a matter of fact when compression technology came along we thought the future in 1996 was about voice. We got it wrong. It is about voice video and data and that is what we have today on these cell phones.

The moment of drifting into thought has been so clipped by modern technology. Our lives are filled with distraction with smartphones and all the rest. People are so locked into not being present.

I don't find the technology threatening. A lot of people my age my generation find it difficult to immerse themselves. But I would never preclude the idea of using any technology if I thought it suited the end result.

The world dominion of western thought forms of organisation technology and military force is not God-given nor eternal nor greatly appreciated by the rest of the world.

I'm always interested in what you can do with technology that people haven't thought of doing yet.

You know I thought we could use a good myth about technology to help guide us through these particular modern waters right now.

I used to think that cyberspace was fifty years away. What I thought was fifty years away was only ten years away. And what I thought was ten years away... it was already here. I just wasn't aware of it yet.

For my confirmation I didn't get a watch and my first pair of long pants like most Lutheran boys. I got a telescope. My mother thought it would make the best gift.

The teacher that I was for decades and that I still am in a certain way wondered what was meant by the word education. I was truly dumbfounded at the very thought of dealing with such an essential and extensive subject.

As a student I learned from wonderful teachers and ever since then I've thought everyone is a teacher.

I didn't want to be the archetypal sponging brother-in-law so I didn't go into acting when I got to the States. I thought 'No I'll go to school and then I'll be an English teacher that'll be fun.' But I was horrible as a teacher. As hard as I tried I just couldn't inspire those kids to take an interest in Milton and Shakespeare and Donne.

Writing became an obsessive compulsive habit but I had almost no money so I thought about being an urban firefighter and having lots of free time in which to write or becoming an English teacher and thinking about books and writers on a daily basis. That swayed me.

I had this wonderful career and thought I would retire as a teacher.

I was 20 years old working as a roofer and a telemarketer and driving a taxi just barely getting by. A friend of a friend suggested I try acting. I was like 'Why? What am I going to do? Community theater?' But I took a class and the teacher thought that I had potential so I moved to Vancouver and started auditioning.

In my teens I developed a passionate idolatry for a teacher of English literature. I wanted to do something that he would approve of more so I thought I should be some sort of a scholar.

I think my parents were happy that I'd gone to university and gotten a degree in history so they thought 'Well if acting doesn't work for him he can always become a history teacher or something.' Fortunately the acting worked out.