“See, Berkeley has always drawn the nuts and flakes of the academic world. That's what happens when you have a university that offers degrees in both computer science and parapsychology.”

“It is a wonderful thing when you stop living for what the world has to offer and start living for what you have to offer the world.”

“There's a good part of Computer Science that's like magic. Unfortunately there's a bad part of Computer Science that's like religion.”

“To be a writer you have to write -- and no academic degree is going to do the writing for you. ”

“The future is unwritten. there are best case scenarios. There are worst-case scenarios. both of them are great fun to write about if you' re a science fiction novelist, but neither of them ever happens in the real world. What happens in the real world is always a sideways-case scenario. World-changing marvels to us, are only wallpaper to our children.”

“Science has eliminated distance,” Melquíades proclaimed. “In a short time, man will be able to see what is happening in any place in the world without leaving his own house.”