“I knew the ribosome was going to be the focus of Nobel prizes. It stan...” — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan Quote

“I knew the ribosome was going to be the focus of Nobel prizes. It stands at the crossroads of biology, between the gene and what comes out of the gene. But I had convinced myself I was not going to be a winner.”

“It's not about where you were born or where you come from that makes you a good scientist. What you need are good teachers, co-students, facilities.”

“There is no magical formula for winning a Nobel Prize.”

“I'd always enjoyed acting at high school, and I was all lined up to do an honours degree course in biology at a Canadian university, and at the eleventh hour the drama teacher I had said, 'You know, you'll get a lot more girls if you go into acting,' and that kinda sold it.”

“I became fascinated by the then-blossoming science of molecular biology when, in my senior year, I happened to read the papers by Francois Jacob and Jacques Monod on the operon theory.”

“I don't want them to have to be the one to come tell me, 'Hey, you performing at the top of your sport is no longer feasible. Biology has set its course.'”