Do things as soon as you can. If a decision needs to be made, make it. It gives you more time to change your mind.

Ever since we achieved a breakthrough in the area of recombinant DNA in 1973, left-wing nuts and environmental kooks have been screaming that we will create some kind of Frankenstein bug or Andromeda Strain that will destroy us all.

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.

A goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid.

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

Already for thirty-five years he had not stopped talking and almost nothing of fundamental value had emerged.

Every time you understand something, religion becomes less likely. Only with the discovery of the double helix and the ensuing genetic revolution have we had grounds for thinking that the powers held traditionally to be the exclusive property of the gods might one day be ours. 5