The last two decades before the interview became something a subject could publish themselves.
20 people · 53 answers
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 1985–1991; President of the Soviet Union 1990–1991
Peace is not unity in similarity but unity in diversity, in the comparison and conciliation of differences.
Recorded · The Nobel Foundation · 1991
Chemist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1999
At the age of 21, as a Moeid, I believed that behind every universal phenomenon there must be beauty and simplicity in its description. This belief remains true today.
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 1999
Veterinary surgeon and immunologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 1996
I share Alfred Nobel's conviction that war is the greatest of all human disasters. Infectious disease runs a good second.
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 1996
Architect; Pritzker Prize laureate, 1995
More than 500 children under the age of 18 lost a parent in the Hanshin Earthquake; 88 of them lost both parents and became orphans.
Recorded · The Hyatt Foundation / The Pritzker Architecture Prize · 1995
Chemist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1999
My science family came from all over the world, and members were of varied backgrounds, cultures, and abilities.
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 1999
President of Costa Rica, 1986–1990 and 2006–2010
My country is a country of teachers. It is therefore a country of peace. We discuss our successes and failures in complete freedom.
Recorded · The Nobel Foundation · 1987
Novelist and editor; Nobel laureate in Literature, 1993
I, at first, thought I didn’t have a ritual, but then I remembered that I always get up and make a cup of coffee while it is still dark—it must be dark—and then I drink the coffee and watch…
Recorded · The Paris Review · 1993
Developmental biologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 1995
I immediately loved working with flies. They fascinated me, and followed me around in my dreams.
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 1995
Chemist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1999
The great singer Um Kulthum (actually named Kawkab Elsharq – a superstar of the East) had a major influence on my appreciation of music.
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 1999
Veterinary surgeon and immunologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 1996
The two things that I miss most when living out of Australia are the bush and the Pacific coast, especially fishing in the surf at night!
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 1996
Ahmed Zewail, Amartya Sen, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Corazon Aquino, Grace Hopper, Lech Wałęsa, Lee Kuan Yew, Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev, Óscar Arias Sánchez, Peter Doherty, Richard Hamming, Rita Levi-Montalcini, Ronald Reagan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Tadao Ando, Toni Morrison, Václav Havel, Warren Buffett, Wisława Szymborska