"I never dreamed that in my lifetime my own genome would be sequenced."

"If you accept that people are the products of evolution, then you have to have an open mind to the truth. Unfair discrimination exists whether we like it or not; I wouldn't have married a gum-chewing vegetarian."

"As an educator, I have always striven to see that the fruits of the American Dream are available to all."

"To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologise unreservedly."

"You've never heard of an English lover. Only an English patient."

"Science has always been my preoccupation and when you think a breakthrough is possible, it is terribly exciting."

"Ultimately, we'll help the people we discriminate against if we try to understand more about them; genetics will lead to a world where there is a sympathy for the underdog."

"Genetically modified foods are good."

"I had become monomaniacal about DNA only in 1951 when I had just turned 23 and as a postdoctoral fellow was temporarily in Naples attending a small May meeting on biologically important macromolecules."

"The pace of discovery is going unbelievably fast."

"My whole life has been basically trying to find intelligent students or, you know, highly motivated students and giving them an opportunity to do good science."

"Take young researchers, put them together in virtual seclusion, give them an unprecedented degree of freedom and turn up the pressure by fostering competitiveness."

"I think the reason people are dealing with science less well now than 50 years ago is that it has become so complicated."

"I have been much blessed."

"I wanted to see if I could write a good book."

"I am thrilled to see my genome."

"Some think there is something wrong about enhancing people."

"It's so difficult writing about living people."

"'Genes, Girls, and Gamow' was an attempt, even more than 'The Double Helix,' to mix science with one's personal life. With 'The Double Helix,' no one had done it before, but I thought I'd try."

"A clone of Einstein wouldn't be stupid, but he wouldn't necessarily be any genius, either."

"The time has come to seriously ask whether antioxidant use much more likely causes than prevents cancer."

"It is extraordinary the extent to which Darwin's insights not only changed his contemporaries' view of the world but also continue to be a source of great intellectual stimulation for scientists and nonscientists alike."

"I first became aware of Charles Darwin and evolution while still a schoolboy growing up in Chicago. My father and I had a passion for bird-watching, and when the snow or the rain kept me indoors, I read his bird books and learned about evolution."

"By the age of 11, I was no longer going to Sunday Mass, and going on birdwatching walks with my father. So early on, I heard of Charles Darwin. I guess, you know, he was the big hero. And, you know, you understand life as it now exists through evolution."