I try to be a Sherlock Holmes of botany. It's not enough to enjoy plants – I want to know why they are wilting, to work things out.

Ultimately, it’s a man who was teaching us English Literature in what we call matricula, the last 2 years of high school. He really was quite extraordinary. When he spoke of a Shakespearean play, you almost thought that he grew up with Shakespeare! He was very good, yes. A black guy who was fantastic and gave us a deep love for literature.

The good part of aging is that you read more and more. You discover poets you never heard of when you were younger.

I always think about things, and if something puzzles me… Well, that of course was one of Darwin’s secrets. Whenever something puzzled him, he tried find a theory. He made a conjecture, as (Karl) Popper would call it, and see if it worked out and that’s true even today.

I have a simple life, and I love that,” he said, smiling. “I can’t imagine a more perfect life.

CEOs are pinch hitters. We should be working on the things that nobody else can or nobody else is.

So problem meetings or idea meetings or brainstorming meetings or creation meetings or whatever it is. Those are the meetings I go to.

Well, I work from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed. And I work seven days a week.

Of all of the things that I value most about my abilities, intelligence is not top of that list. My ability to endure pain and suffering, my ability to work on something for a very, very long period of time, my ability to handle setbacks and see the opportunity just around the corner I consider to be my superpowers, and I hope they're yours.

I love that there is no privileged access to information. I love that we’re able to all contribute to solving a problem.