DNA was my only gold rush. I regarded DNA as worth a gold rush.

Biology has at least 50 more interesting years.

No one may have the guts to say this, but if we could make better human beings by knowing how to add genes, why shouldn't we?

I have been much blessed.

Science has always been my preoccupation and when you think a breakthrough is possible, it is terribly exciting.

I recently went to my staircase at Clare College, Cambridge and there were women there! There have been a lot of convincing studies recently about the loss of productivity in the Western male. It may be that entertainment culture now is so engaging that it keeps people satisfied. We didn't have that. Science was much more fun than listening to the radio. When you are 16 or 17 and in that inherently semi-lonely period when you are deciding whether to be an intellectual, many now don't bother.

I have a son, who is a... not an ordinary form of schizophrenia, but clearly, cannot take care of himself. And the great fear of then, of all parents is, when the parents die, who takes care of your child? And the answer is: they become homeless.