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Rita Dove
Former Poet Laureate of the United States
Being true to yourself really means being true to all the complexities of the human spirit. And as much as we'd like to give -- and we want to be perfect, well-rounded individuals -- all of us have our quirks. We all know we've had our foibles. And we've got these embarrassing moments in our lives, and things that we're ultimately ashamed of. What writing -- what I think all the arts do -- is to reveal. Let us see again and experience again, all the ambiguities that make up -- and the contradictions that make up -- a human being: the good and the bad and how they can exist in one person and make a complex individual. And to do that, that means being very honest. Being honest all the time.
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Mohamed ElBaradei
Nobel Prize for Peace
I think that is the most important lesson you learn in life, that you have to be ready to make a compromise. You do not compromise your principles, but you have to be ready to compromise. You have to understand that you cannot get your way 100 percent. Life is too complicated. You are not an island, and you work in a social setting, and you need to understand that you work always -- at the family level, at the society level -- to work out the compromise that is perceived to be fair. You don't get 100 percent of what you want, but at least you will get the basic minimum that you require.
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Gertrude Elion
Nobel Prize in Medicine
I would always bring home work on weekends. And in the country -- we had a cabin not far from New York, and I would come, and I would sit under the apple tree and write papers. And my mother would always say, "Does your boss know what you do on the weekends?" And I would say, "I'm not doing it for him, I'm doing it for me." And one weekend, I came without any work, and she said, "You are not feeling well. And I said, "I'm feeling perfectly -- " "Oh, no! You are not telling me the truth. If you were feeling well, you would have brought some work with you."
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