Whatever the course, whether the course was boring or interesting to me, whether I was talented in mathematics or not talented in languages, my parents expected A's.

Going to school and working for good marks, indeed working for very good marks, was a serious business.

Experimental science is a craft and an art, and part of the art is knowing when to end a fruitless experiment. There is a danger of becoming obsessed with a fruitless experiment even if it goes nowhere.

My final remark to young women and men going into experimental science is that they should pay little attention to the speculative physics ideas of my generation. After all, if my generation has any really good speculative ideas, we will be carrying these ideas out ourselves.

It was good fortune to be a child during the Depression years and a youth during the war years.

My parents regarded school teachers as higher beings, as did many immigrants.

I was also interested in chemistry, but my parents were not willing to buy me a chemistry set.