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Ian Wilmut
Pioneer of Cloning
I think the initial reason why I became interested in farming is that I wanted to be outdoors. I've always enjoyed being outdoors. And so, I looked around and when I was at high school, probably 14 or so, my parents through friends arranged for me to be able to go work on farms on the weekend. I'm of course a city boy, in other words. I was born in Coventry, we moved to the West Riding of Yorkshire, which is industrial. We lived in a woolen area, in an area where the mill was famous because it was the first in which the wool from llamas was used, alpaca. And so it was an industrial area. But I always enjoyed getting out. And I think it was through working with animals on the farm. I'm not particularly mechanically minded, so tractors never really attracted me at all. But, milking dairy cows, becoming familiar with dairy cows, understanding the biology a little bit, that's where the interest developed.
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E.O. Wilson
Father of Sociobiology
It gave us three full years to do anything we wanted. So in effect, what I said when I got it -- it was a glorious opportunity, 1953, I was 24 -- I said, "Do anything! Go anywhere!" and immediately I was off to the tropics, which is where I always wanted to go, to luxuriate in the maximum diversity centers of the world, fauna and flora. Sort of like an art student, a scholar of art history, being allowed to visit the great museums for the first time. So off I went to Cuba and Mexico, and spent time working in the rainforest, becoming familiar with the biology of the fauna and flora, and particularly the ants. Then immediately afterward, after passing through Harvard and shaking some hands and collecting checks, I headed for the South Pacific.
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E.O. Wilson
Father of Sociobiology
I saw what I could succeed in. I never considered myself very bright, and I always thought of myself as mathematically mediocre. So I figured that probably, like your college runner who has difficulty breaking a ten-second hundred -- well, breaking an 11-second, shall we say, 100-meter -- realizes that their best shot is to rely less on strength and speed and more on self-discipline, planning, and long hard work. Yes. That's the way I do science.
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Oprah Winfrey
Entertainment Executive
Oprah Winfrey: Well, I loved books so much as a child. They were my outlet to the world. And I still do. People ask me, "What do you do in your spare time?" That's what I do -- I read. There are so many books. I went through a period of Lois Lenski books. She wrote Strawberry Girl, and lots of stories about these little peasant children. I went through a period where I wanted to be them. I would read the character, and whichever book I was reading, that's who I wanted to be that week. I read a book in the third grade about Katie John, who hated boys, and she had freckles. Well Lord knows, I'm not going to have freckles, no way, no how. But I tried to put some on. And I went through my "Katie John" phase. I think the book that moved me most growing up was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I had a tree in my backyard, too, so I identified with her. I just thought, "Well, this is my life." And then I discovered Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Well, first of all, it was the first time I had ever encountered another woman who had been sexually abused. I couldn't imagine, couldn't imagine. I felt that way, too, when I read The Color Purple. I read the first page of The Color Purple, put the book down, and wept. I could not believe it, that someone had put this in writing. It was unbelievable.
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Oprah Winfrey
Entertainment Executive
I thought of The Color Purple for myself. I know this is going to sound strange to you. I read the book. I got so many copies of that book. I passed the book around the everybody I knew. If I was on the bus, I'd pass it out to people. And when I heard that there was going to be a movie, I started talking it up for myself. I didn't know Quincy Jones or Steven Spielberg, or how on earth I would get in this movie. I'd never acted in my life. But I felt it so intensely that I had to be a part of that movie. I really do believe that I created it for myself. I wanted it more than anything in the world, and would have done anything to do it, anything to do it.
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Oprah Winfrey
Entertainment Executive
What I know is, is that if you do work that you love and work the fulfills you, the rest will come. And that, I truly believe that the reason I've been able to be so financially successful is because my focus has never, ever for one minute been money. And the fact that the money has come has really surprised me. I've been just really surprised and delighted and very pleased, and at many times overwhelmed by it. But the money has never been the focus. You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job, and not be paid for it. And I would do this job, and take on a second job to make ends meet if nobody paid me. Just for the opportunity to do it. That's how you know you are doing the right thing.
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