Jocelyn Bell Burnell

I have spent my life looking at the sky and trying to understand what's out there.

It is a great privilege to be the first person to see something new.

You need a lot of stamina to be a research scientist.

The Breakthrough Prize money is an enormous amount, and I decided the most constructive thing I could do was to give it away.

I want to use the funds to help people who are not the usual suspects, people who are facing barriers in physics.

There was a period when I thought, 'Is this really happening?'

Curiosity is the engine of science.

I think it's vital that more people from more backgrounds come into science.

The telescope was my baby. I had built a lot of it with my own hands.

We are made of star-stuff.

I have always been fascinated by patterns, and the sky is full of them.

Science progresses by a series of small steps, with occasional great leaps.

I am an example of how unexpected things can happen in a career.

The data is there. You have to have the wit to see it.

I believe in giving back to the community that nurtured me.

Doing science is like doing a huge jigsaw puzzle, but without the picture on the box.

I think my Quaker background has given me a strong sense of social justice.

The exclusion of women from science has been a huge loss to science.

Persistence is as important as brilliance.

I have been very fortunate in my mentors and my colleagues.