I saw Linus Pauling as a brilliant lecturer and a man with a fantastic memory, and a great, great showman. I think he was the century's greatest chemist. No doubt about it.

What is known for certain is dull.

Discoveries cannot be planned, they pop up, like Puck, in unexpected corners

Could the search for ultimate truth really have revealed so hideous and visceral looking an object?

On hearing the news [of being awarded a Nobel Prize], a friend who knows me only too well, sent me this laconic message: 'Blood, toil, sweat and tears always were a good mixture'.

I rarely plan my research; it plans me.

People are best judged by their actions

Women's liberation could have not succeeded if science had not provided them with contraception and household technology.

We sometimes have to experience pain for us to have a story to tell.

Your imagination s a wonderland full of realities.

The view is endlessly fulfilling. It is like the answer to a lifetime of questions and vague cravings.

It is forbidden to decry other sects; the true believer gives honour to whatever in them is worthy of honour.

Sometimes you can write a great scene, but when you're actually in a situation and it doesn't work, you have to be flexible enough to make it work for you.

You can forget facts but you cannot forget understanding.

You cannot have a diplomatic offensive without talking.

Many journalists seem to believe that we have become little different from our enemies.

Libraries are places where the damaged go to find friends

I do not in the least object to a sport because it is rough.