Everybody has to learn for the first time.

If it takes you 20 or 25 years to establish yourself in one field, you really ought to be careful not to stray too far.

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

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.

My ambitions were already very clearly fixed by the time I was 6 or 7.

A Swedish newspaper reporter called and said, You've been awarded the Prize. I was quite sure it was a practical joke.

If you wanted to dissect the structure of living cells, genetic analysis was an extremely powerful method, so my interest turned to that.