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Elizabeth Blackburn
Nobel Prize in Medicine
I feel very fortunate, because even in high school I kind of knew it was biology. I knew that was what fascinated me, and I pretty much knew that it was going to be something, as I saw it, looking deep into how these things really work -- which then was called biochemistry, and then became more molecular and more cell biology with the years. So I went through high school knowing fairly much that this would be where I would go, perhaps not even thinking about it all that much. I just kind of fortunately knew, but in Australia, socially, there was very much a strong sense that women didn't do certain kinds of careers. I was in high school once when somebody said -- this was an adult, not my teacher but some other teacher -- said, "What's a nice girl like you doing going into science?" I just remember that vividly. I didn't lash out at this person, because I kind of socially didn't know how to do that, but I just remember thinking, "That's interesting, and I'm not going to basically have any interaction with that person anymore." Because this person didn't seem to get that this was something that I cared about.
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Norman Borlaug
Ending World Hunger
Norman Borlaug: I stood up and I said, "We can't produce the wheat that Mexico needs just in the Yaqui Valley or in Sinaloa. We've got to work in all the areas where wheat wasn't an important crop, especially the Bajillo, and if I'm not permitted to do that, I'll leave." I stood and I said, "If Joe Rupert wants to accept it, I'll leave tomorrow. Otherwise, I'll wait until you have a satisfactory replacement." Before I got to the door, Joe Rupert stood up and walked out with me. And when I got to my office and Dorothy Parker -- who was our librarian -- she handed me the mail. And in this mail was a letter written to (George) Harrar by a very practical farmer in the Yaqui Valley who had his farm right adjacent to us. He used to loan us machinery because originally in 1933 or 4 when Rodolfo Calles was governor, he set up that station where I worked. It must've been a model for all of Latin America -- good machinery far before its time, all kinds of the best strains of animals, both dairy animals and beef, chickens, goats, sheep. When I arrived, this was all ruined. The poor guy who was the director, Leon Manzo, he didn't have any budget. He wanted to do something, but that's the way it was. 'Til I figured if we could get two generations a year, we could overcome this faster.
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J. Carter Brown
Director Emeritus
National Gallery of Art
I'm just a sunny personality that has this idea that everything's going to come out all right. When I was diagnosed with cancer just this last year, I figured, "Okay, well that's what apparently is in the deck that I've been dealt, and we'll just do the best we can." Don't let it put you into a slough of despond. One thing I really fear is living too long and becoming one of these vegetables and a burden to everybody and to yourself. And so, I've had such a rich life, such fabulous opportunities, that I feel, "Okay, take it as it comes."
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