What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it?

The two alternatives left then to us were either to emigrate to the United States, or to pursue some activity that needed neither support nor connection with the outside Aryan world where we lived. My family chose this second alternative. I then decided to build a small research unit at home and installed it in my bedroom. My inspiration was a 1934 article by Viktor Hamburger reporting on the effects of limb extirpation in chick embryos. My project had barely started when Giuseppe Levi, who had escaped from Belgium invaded by Nazis, returned to Turin and joined me, thus becoming, to my great pride, my first and only assistant.

Recorded · Laureate-written autobiography for Les Prix Nobel, Nobel Prize Outreach, 1 December 1986 · source

I had two options. One was to remain silent and wait to be killed. And the second was to speak up and then be killed. I chose the second one. I decided to speak up.

Recorded · Oslo City Hall, The Nobel Foundation, 10 December 2014 · source

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

It went past being hungry; it was actually painful in your stomach. I could feel my intestines twisting in the middle of the night. I would scream to my grandmother and she would get me sugar water and it would settle it down. A lot of my values come from being resilient. The people from my community might be poor financially but they are happy, proud and resilient people.

Recorded · Dan Roan, The Sports Desk podcast, BBC, BBC Sport, 15 October 2021 · source

For me, school was probably the most traumatising and most difficult part of my life. I already was being bullied at the age of six. I think at the time, (at) that particular school, I was probably one of three kids of colour and just bigger, stronger, bullying kids were throwing me around a lot of the time.

Recorded · Jay Shetty, On Purpose podcast, Sky Sports, 23 January 2023 · source