“If scientists don’t play God, who will?”

Some think there is something wrong about enhancing people.

The pace of discovery is going unbelievably fast.

No one may have the guts to say this, but if we could make better human beings by knowing how to add genes, why shouldn’t we?

The luckiest thing that ever happened to me was that my father didn’t believe in God, and so he had no hang-ups about souls.

Whenever you interview fat people, you feel bad, because you know you’re not going to hire them.

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

No good model ever accounted for all the facts, since some data was bound to be misleading if not plain wrong.

One could not be a successful scientist without realizing that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of scientists, a goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid.

If you succeed with your first dream, it helps. You know, people trust you, possibly, for the second one. They give you a chance to play out your second one.

DNA was my only gold rush. I regarded DNA as worth a gold rush.

Do things as soon as you can. If a decision needs to be made, make it. It gives you more time to change your mind.

The biggest advantage to believing in God is you don’t have to understand anything, no physics, no biology. I wanted to understand.

If I had been married earlier in life, I wouldn’t have seen the double helix. I would have been taking care of the kids on Saturday. On the other hand, I was lonely a lot of the time.

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.

Never be the brightest person in the room.

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