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I started doing experiments - mostly in organic chemistry, because it was so much more interesting - in my mother's laundry at home.

When I began playing around at being a physical chemist, I enjoyed very much doing work on the structure of DNA molecules, something which I would never have dreamed of doing before I started.

The more the relationships of the nitrogen-rich substances to the cell nucleus were recognized, the more the question of the arrangement of the nitrogen and carbon atoms in the molecule came to stand out.

The laws of physics should allow us to arrange things molecule by molecule and even atom by atom, and at some point it was inevitable that we would develop a technology that would let us do this.

I wanted to understand the secrets behind my chemical experiments and behind the processes in nature.

I did a thesis in experimental nuclear physics under the direction of Samuel K. Allison.

The whole edifice of modern physics is built up on the fundamental hypothesis of the atomic or molecular constitution of matter.

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

This discovery convinced me of the power of crystallography and led me to continue in this field.

In this atmosphere I soon became interested in nucleic acids.