Being successful at a very young age gave me the confidence and the capability to try out other things.

I started on the use of the Internet for scientific communication. Our research group was one of the very first to make really systematic use of it as a way of managing research projects.

I hope I've lived a life of science whose style will encourage younger people.

I got my Nobel Prize for my lab work.

I get curious about new things. My real strength is going into a field that has not been investigated before, and finding new approaches to it.

I did get a very fine education, and not just in science. It took some pressure on the part of my elders to convince me that I really should take an interest in humanities.

I certainly saw science as a kind of calling, and one with as much legitimacy as a religious calling.

By the time I was 12 or 13, I was studying biochemistry textbooks.

As soon as you go into any biological process in any real detail, you discover it's open-ended in terms of what needs to be found out about it.

Although I am a public figure, I'm still a little shy. I don't think my own personality is important. I prefer to keep some small dosage of privacy.

All of civility depends on being able to contain the rage of individuals.

When I was in high school, I became interested in cytochemistry: chemical analysis under the microscope, and trying to understand the composition of cells.

I think we have to believe we are here for some purpose, and I know there are many cynics who will deny it, but they don't live as if they deny it.

Everybody has to learn for the first time.

To have the recognition of your colleagues is great. The public attention is a mixed blessing.