Overheard

"Brian Greene - string theory's answer to John Cusack?"

"Don't ever travel with your daughter."

"I passed through L.A. on my way back home and I saw those mountains going all the way up from the sea to the sky ... Damn, I ate dinner at the Derby my first night in town. I was going to blow my whole wallet and you know who saw me there in uniform and picked up the tab? Goddamn Clark Gable. I'm not kidding you. I kickin' fell in love with that place and it took me almost thirty years to see past that."

"If you are tempted to do anything silly between now and the time of our departure, just say this to yourself two or three times: 'If he dies, I die.' Say it as if it were out of the Bible -- because it's that true."

"There's nothing more damaging to the soul than a too intense concern with other people's sins."

"Irresponsibility is not a sickness. It's an art."

"A webcam is basically a light cable with a wormhole in the middle."

"We must overcome the notion that we must be regular. It robs you of your chance to be extraordinary and leads you to the mediocre."

"Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience."

"[The U.S. has] a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world; and its efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men every day who don't know anything and can't read."

"An Australian child who had three limbs severed in a freak basketball accident this week now has them all successfully reattached."