I feel like I’m on one of those big diving boards … I was on a really high one already, and now I’m going to the highest one. It’s a little scary, but I’m going to do a back flip and dance as I go into it.

Juan Felipe Herrera, professor of creative writing emeritus at UCR, on receiving news that he was named U.S. poet laureate

THE NEW YORK TIMES

(They develop maternal thinking, and they become more) sensitive and nurturing caregivers.

Scott Coltrane, professor of sociology, on his study that men who take care of their kids on more than a casual basis undergo a transformation

THE BOSTON GLOBE

The more words you have, the more you can twist them, but it’s not a bad definition.

Scott Allen, associate dean at the School of Medicine and professor of clinical medicine, on the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation techniques” and “research on human subjects” without their informed consent in the post-9/11 CIA torture of terrorism detainees

THE GUARDIAN

When people are imitated, they are more likely to like the person they’re interacting with — they’re more likely to rate the interaction as successful.

Lawrence D. Rosenblum, professor of psychology, on Hillary Clinton’s “speech alignment,” the process by which people tend to copy or mimic the accents of those around them

CNN

Naturally there has been a lot of finger-pointing going on. Originally people blamed agriculture, then for a while people were blaming Starbucks. Even the Kardashians, and Beverly Hills people generally, came under fire. The reality is we’re all a little guilty.

Kurt Schwabe, associate professor of environmental economics and policy, on surviving California’s drought with growing populations and shrinking water supplies

THE IRISH TIMES

The forests are extremely dense and we needed to take care of matters, and now it’s too late. If the weather turns bad, we could have a nuke. … Literally, you turn the forest into toothpicks.

Rich Minnich, a fire ecologist and professor of geography, on the possibility of more dangerous fires in the eastern San Bernardino Mountains

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

We confirmed that the galaxy is more than 12 billion light years from us. Combining these with other observations, the UCR team successfully identified the presence of ions from elements that could only be produced through intense radiation.

Bahram Mobasher, a professor of physics and astronomy, on his team’s spectroscopic observation of CR7 using the W. M. Keck Observatory telescopes

WIRELESS DESIGN MAGAZINE