Tu Youyou

Pharmaceutical chemist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 2015

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
Most pharmaceutical workshops were shut down during the great cultural revolution. Without manufacturing support, we had to extract herbs ourselves using household vats etc. The team worked very long hours every day including the weekends. Due to lack of proper equipment and ventilation, and long-term exposure to the organic solvents, some of my team members included myself started to show unhealthy symptoms. This, however, did not stop our efforts.

Laureate-written autobiography for Les Prix Nobel, Nobel Prize Outreach, 1 December 2015 source ↗

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Wisława Szymborska Poet and essayist; Nobel laureate in Literature, 1996
But poets are the worst. Their work is hopelessly unphotogenic. Someone sits at a table or lies on a sofa while staring motionless at a wall or ceiling. Once in a while this person writes down seven lines only to cross out one of them fifteen minutes later, and then another hour passes, during which nothing happens … Who could stand to watch this kind of thing?
Recorded Swedish Academy, Stockholm, 7 December 1996, The Nobel Foundation (nobelprize.org), 7 December 1996 source ↗
Alison Goldfrapp English musician and record producer
People always want to assume that, as a singer and as a woman, you’re simply the voice. I produce music as well and I’m doing all the artwork and all these other very unglamorous things, like going to marketing meetings. It’s sort of a constant every day process, working on all aspects of the band and the business.
Recorded T. Cole Rachel, Conversation, The Creative Independent, 23 January 2017 source ↗
Richard Ford Novelist and short-story writer
To completely muscle up for that writing I spent most of a year noting down and rigging around all I knew and could casually learn about real estate
Recorded Travis Holland, Interview, Fiction Writers Review, 11 April 2011 source ↗
Derek Sivers Founder of CD Baby; author of Anything You Want
I love days where I just work uninterrupted from 6am to 10pm, stopping just for a little exercise. These are my favorite days, and always have been.
Recorded personal website, Derek Sivers source ↗

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Question What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? Failure & regret
I unfortunately contracted tuberculosis at the age of sixteen and had to take a two-year break and receive treatment at home before I resumed my study at the private Ningbo Xiaoshi High School (1948–1950) and Ningbo High School (1950–1951). This experience led me to make a decision to choose medical research for my advanced education and career – if I could learn and have (medical) skills, I could not only keep myself healthy but also cure many other patients.
Recorded Laureate-written autobiography for Les Prix Nobel, Nobel Prize Outreach, 1 December 2015 source ↗
Question What is the book you have given most as a gift, and why? Taste & recommendation
In Ge Hong's A Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies (肘后备急方), I noticed one sentence "A handful of Qinghao immersed in two liters of water, wring out the juice and drink it all" (青蒿一握, 以水二升渍, 绞取汁, 尽服之) when Qinghao was mentioned for alleviating malaria fevers. Most herbs were typically boiled in water and made into a decoction before taken by the patients. This unique way of using Qinghao gave me the idea that heating during extraction might have destroyed the active components and the high temperature might need to be avoided in order to preserve the herb's activity.
Recorded Laureate-written autobiography for Les Prix Nobel, Nobel Prize Outreach, 1 December 2015 source ↗

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