Alan Guth

We don't have a solid theory of how the universe originated, but that doesn't mean we have to invoke a deity.

Relativity can, for instance, explain that the universe had once been clumped into a dense fireball. But it can never explain how matter actually behaved.

If we assume there is no maximum possible entropy for the universe, then any state can be a state of low entropy.

I had considered MIT a place where brilliant people came.

Our best theory of describing space at a fundamental level is probably string theory.

Now, what space ultimately is - I should confess, I think most physicists believe - we don't yet know.

In the context of general relativity, space almost is a substance. It can bend and twist and stretch, and probably the best way to think about space is to just kind of imagine a big piece of rubber that you can pull and twist and bend.

Space is certainly something more complicated than the average person would probably realize. Space is not just an empty background in which things happen.

It's not a coincidence that the Bible starts with Genesis. Most people really want to know where we came from and where everything around us came from. I like to strongly push the scientific answer. We have evidence. We no longer have to rely on stories we were told when we were young.

If one just tried to invent a universe on one's own, it would probably end up being a much less colorful and interesting universe than the one that we live in.

From a theoretical point of view, it is very hard to imagine how gravity could avoid being quantized.

To a theoretical physicist, there is no greater joy than to see that this curious activity we call calculation - the depositing of ink on paper, followed by throwing away the paper and depositing new ink on more paper - can actually tell us something about reality.