Barbara McClintock

When you're really interested in something, you don't have to be pushed. The desire to know is there, and you go after it.

I had a feeling for the organism.

It might seem that the more one learns, the more one is aware of the vastness of the unknown. This is the way it is. I am always amazed at the number of things I don't know.

If you know you are on the right track, if you have this inner knowledge, then nobody can turn you off, no matter what they say.

I never thought of myself as a woman in science. I just thought of myself as a scientist.

The more you look, the more you see.

I was not aware of any particular difficulties because I was a woman. I was just doing what I wanted to do.

The organism is a unit. It's not just a collection of genes. It's a whole, integrated system.

I always tried to make the organism tell me. I didn't try to impose my ideas on it.

It is not a question of whether the genes are there or not, but how they are organized and how they function.

The control of gene action is a very complex affair, and it's not just a simple on-off switch.

The genome is not a static entity. It's a very dynamic one.

I had a feeling for the chromosomes, the way they moved, the way they behaved.

The capacity for change is inherent in the organism.

The organism has ways of coping with stress, and these ways involve changes in the genome.

The genome is not a blueprint, it's a program.

I was always trying to understand how things worked, not just what they were.

The organism has a wisdom of its own.

It is the capacity for change that makes life possible.

The organism is much more complex than we imagine.