Economists often like startling theorems results which seem to run counter to conventional wisdom.

I wish I had coined the phrase 'tyranny of choice ' but someone beat me to it. The counterintuitive truth is that have an abundance of options does not make you feel privileged and indulged too many options make you feel like all of them are wrong and that you are wrong if you choose any of them.

To the scientist there is the joy in pursuing truth which nearly counteracts the depressing revelations of truth.

Some counterfeits reproduce so very well the truth that it would be a flaw of judgment not to be deceived by them.

The photograph reverses the purpose of travel which until now had been to encounter the strange and unfamiliar.

When you encounter difficulties and contradictions do not try to break them but bend them with gentleness and time.

I knew from the beginning that privacy was going to be a huge issue especially with regard to applying Total Information Awareness in counterterrorism. Because if the technology development was successful a logical place to apply it was inside the United States.

However I had a chance encounter with an admissions officer of Stevens Institute of Technology who so impressed me by his erudition and enthusiasm for the school that I changed course and entered Stevens Institute.

But the technology was accessible which suggests incompetence on the part of our counterintelligence community and the Clinton Administration and may in fact rise to the level of treason.

A total nuclear freeze is counterproductive - especially now when technology is rapidly changing and the Soviets have some important strategic advantages.

Sympathy for victims is always counter-balanced by an equal and opposite feeling of resentment towards them.

It requires more strength to be gentle so it's the everyday encounters of life that I think we've prepared children for and prepared them to be good to other people and to consider other people.

Sports broadcasting is very open now. In the beginning you did encounter more traditional attitudes and get comments. But I'm talking about 12 years ago.

I think it's great that we have organisations like Greenpeace. In a pluralistic society we want to have people who point out all the problems that the Earth could encounter. But we need to understand that they are not presenting a full and rounded view.

'Eyes Wide Open' took shape from two real life events straight from my own past. One was the sad suicide of my young nephew a troubled kid who was found at the bottom of a landmark cliff in central California. The second was a chance encounter forty years ago with none other than ahem Charles Manson!

More generally I made an effort to leave out things that weren't relevant to the main narrative themes of the book namely that there were two sides to Steve Jobs: the romantic poetic countercultural rebel on one side and the serious businessperson on the other.

It's easier to write from my own life and it's also more fun. I always write about relationships for instance whether they're romantic relationships friendships encounters... there's always a lesson to be learned from them.