Observe yourself as you go through a typical day. Stuff happens to you. As it does, you immediately judge it and label it. Dozens of times. Hundreds of times. So often that you no longer recognize that you're doing it. It is a deep-seated habit.

I don't believe that being an inspiring leader is a goal that you can aspire to. It is a by-product.

We, as individuals, must be responsible for our careers with the goal of reaching our highest potential. The job of a manager is to tap into that energy that's already there.

Think of the universe as a benevolent parent. A child may want a tub of ice-cream and marshmallows, but a wise parent will give it fruits and vegetables instead. That is not what the child wants, but it is what the child needs.

I moved to MIT from Stanford in 1984 to teach, and became the founding director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab.

There was a time when the government cut off funding to SETI, basically, and I thought it was something that should continue, and it was a very interesting scientific question.

I think a lot of kids get scared by 'E.T.' Sometimes when I do the science-fiction conventions, I'll have a 35-year-old guy with tatts and piercings all over, and he comes up and says, 'You know, it scared me so much I still can't watch it.'

A lot of the time, when I find myself critiquing scientific accuracy in movies, I have to remind myself that it had to get close enough to getting it right to get things wrong.