I was approaching the age of 40 with a substantial publication record, but had not yet held any position in a chemistry department.

Looking through the list of earlier Nobel laureates, I note a large number with whom I became acquainted and with whom I interacted during those years as they passed through Cambridge.

I was a close observer of the developments in molecular biology.

At the age of 12, I developed an intense interest in mathematics. On exposure to algebra, I was fascinated by simultaneous equations and read ahead of the class to the end of the book.

From an early age I was told that I was expected to do more than continue to run a small business. Education was important and seen as a way of moving forward.

I am delighted to have had students, friends and colleagues in so many nations and to have learned so much of what I know from them. This Nobel Award honours them all.

On my return to Pittsburgh, I resolved to go back to the fundamental problems of electronic structure that I had contemplated abstractly many years earlier.

Leaving England was a painful decision, and we still have some regrets about it. However, at that time, the research environment for theoretical chemistry was clearly better in the U.S.

I had changed from being a mathematician to a practicing scientist. I was increasingly embarassed that I could no longer follow some of the more modern branches of pure mathematics.

Life with a scientist who is often changing jobs and is frequently away at meetings and on lecture tours is not easy. Without a secure home base, I could not have made much progress.

In the war, most young men were inducted into the armed forces at the age of 17. A group of students was permitted to attend university before taking part in wartime research projects.

Literature is impoverished beyond our counting by the doors that have been shut upon women

I don't know what I'd have become if I hadn't been a footballer; I wrote down 'dustbin man' on a careers questionnaire at school till my dad made me change it to 'joiner'.

Novels help us to resist the temptation to think of the past as deficient.

It's one of the curses of designing that when you look at anything, you're constantly thinking, Why? Why - why was it designed like that, and not like this?

there are only two ways to make a lot [of money] while you're young: One is to entertain the public; and the other is to cheat it.

Will you still love me when I'm no longer young and beautiful? Will you still love me when I've got nothing but my aching soul?

One's capacity for friendship, which can be developed, is basic to one's capacity for happiness.

...You know something, don't you?" "I know lots of things--your inquiry needs to be more specific." "Just answer the question." "True/false or multiple choice?

He's the greatest clutch player I've ever seen. The hell with Jerry West!

There's some *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys on my iPod. I listen to it if it comes up on shuffle.