It's easier to change what you do than people think it is. If you don't change, your field changes around you.

Why do we do basic research? To learn about ourselves.

Three billion bases of DNA sequence can be put on a single compact disc and one will be able to pull a CD out of one's pocket and say, 'Here is a human being; it's me!'

Everyone wants a hand in the outcome, a piece of the knowledge.

By asking a novel question that you don't know the answer to, you discover whether you can formulate a way of finding the answer, and you stretch your own mind, and very often you learn something new.

It's easier to change what you do than people think it is. If you don't change, your field changes around you.

I have the same sense of the power and virtue of knowledge that some people get from a religious background.