Who would fare better in this world of fitful time? Those who have seen the future and live only one life? Or those who have not seen the future and wait to live life? Or those who deny the future and live two lives? Alan Lightman More Quotes by Alan Lightman More Quotes From Alan Lightman Continents of memory had been lost. Alan Lightman continents lost memories Children grow rapidly, forget the centuries-long embrace from their parents, which to them lasted but seconds. Children become adults, live far from their parents, live their own houses, learn ways of their own, suffer pain, grow old. Children curse their parents for their wrinkled skin and hoarse voices. Those now old children also want to stop time, but at another time. They want to freeze their own children at the center of time. Alan Lightman pain voice children Is it possible for a person to love without wanting love back? Is anything so pure? Or is love, by its nature, a reciprocity, like oceans and clouds, an evaporating of seawater and a replenishing by rain? Alan Lightman ocean rain clouds I picked such seemingly disparate essays, I thought it was important to say what was the guiding principle in the selection rather than focus on any one essay. I reached for some principle that had been subconscious in me and lifted it into consciousness. Authenticity and sincerity were the most important unifying principles of all these apparently different essays. Alan Lightman guiding-principles focus important The Book of Telling tells of a woman's journey to uncover the secret life of her father and to find herself in the process, an unusual counterpoint between personal history and the history of a young nation. Haunting, powerful, and beautifully written. Alan Lightman powerful father book The tragedy of this world is that everyone is alone. For a life in the past cannot be shared with the present. Alan Lightman being-alone loneliness past Scientists will forever have to live with the fact that their product is, in the end, impersonal. Alan Lightman scientist forever facts Originality is also very important to a writer. And all of the writers I've mentioned, of course, are original, but it's important to me that every book that I do be really a completely fresh and new look at the world. And of course, that makes it frightening to start a new book because you can't really depend upon what you've done with previous books. Alan Lightman important book looks I am spellbound by the plays of Shakespeare. And I am spellbound by the second law of thermodynamics. The great ideas in science, like the Cro-Magnon paintings and the plays of Shakespeare, are part of our cultural heritage. Alan Lightman law play ideas Science is an intellectual journey, and to me, it's not the destination, it's the journeyto get there. It's a way of thinking and it's an intellectual curiosity, a desire to know how the world works, and to know what the fundamental principles of the world are, and to know our place in it. I think once we stop asking questions like "what is the age of the universe," or "how are the instructions of DNA carried out on a microscopic level," once we stop asking questions like that, we're dead. Alan Lightman asking-questions journey thinking As long as God does not intervene in the contemporary universe in such a way as to violate physical laws, science has no way of knowing whether God exists or not. The belief or disbelief in such a Being is therefore a matter of faith. Alan Lightman knowing law long Another strand of my writing is the importance of the idea. If you think about fiction writing as a spectrum, where at one end of the spectrum in the infrared, are the story tellers, and the people for whom creation of wonderful characters and telling a good story is the most important thing. Alan Lightman writing character thinking I have always loved magic realism as a form of writing. I have also been fascinated for a long time with the intersection of science and religion. Alan Lightman magic-realism writing long Except for a God who sits down after the universe begins, all other gods conflict with the assumptions of science. Alan Lightman conflict assumption universe As a scientist, I don't believe science will ever discover whether God exists. Nor do I believe religion will ever prove it. Alan Lightman whether-god-exists scientist believe In fiction writing, I would say there are several different strands that have been woven through my own writing, and each influenced by a different group of writers. Alan Lightman groups writing fiction I still will sit down at the piano and play when I am wrestling with something emotionally or just want to move into the musical world. Alan Lightman play wrestling moving Time is a rigid, bonelike structure, extending infinitely ahead and behind, fossilizing the future as well as the past. Alan Lightman structure time past It's not necessarily a large number of people that affect the culture. You don't count the number of influential voices, you weigh them. A hundred people can affect the culture. Alan Lightman voice numbers people Every essay - the subject matter of every essay - is ultimately about the essayist; him or herself. That ultimately, every essayist is writing about his or her view of the world. Alan Lightman matter views writing
