“Nothing we design or make ever really works??? Everything we design and make is an improvisation, a lash-up, something inept and provisional.”

“Everything--the section of comfortable chairs in the middle, the long colourful chains that dangled lights from the ceiling--seemed designed to make you feel like you were part of something larger, without actually being made to feel small.”

“they were a closed society, not ready even for a biological intruder”

“Having to accept hominoids as real will require having to acknowledge that the prehuman fossil record is comprised entirely of their bones, rather than ours.”

“She realises that if she is to save the show she is going to have to improvise a rousing speech, one of the many Henry V moments that make up her working life.”

“Nothing earthly will make me give up my work in despair.”

“People may or may not say what they mean... but they always say something designed to get what they want.”