There may not have actually been any collapse. With only 500 years, there's no reason to believe there had to have been a huge [population] growth.

The collapse was really a function of European disease being introduced. The story that's been told about these populations going crazy and creating their own demise may just be simply an artifact of [Christian] missionaries telling stories.

It fits our 20th-century view of us as ecological monsters. There's no doubt that we do terrible things ecologically, but we're passing that on to the past, which may not have actually been the case. To stick our plight onto them is unfair.

We are the product of 4.5 billion years of fortuitous, slow biological evolution. There is no reason to think that the evolutionary process has stopped. Man is a transitional animal. He is not the climax of creation.

The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.

It's just one of of those things you have to program yourself to not worry about. It's no reason to jump on our starting pitchers. We just have to go out and score more runs.