It takes a certain amount of courage to tackle very hard problems in science, I now realise. You don't know what the timescale of your work will be: decades or only a few years.

- Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Governments and scientists in India need to ensure that politics and religious ideology do not intrude into science. They belong to separate spheres, and if they are not kept separate, it is science in India and the country as a whole that will suffer.

- Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

People go into science out of curiosity, not to win awards. But scientists are human and have ambitions.

- Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Governments and scientists in India need to ensure that politics and religious ideology do not intrude into science. They belong to separate spheres, and if they are not kept separate, it is science in India and the country as a whole that will suffer.

- Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

I am still the same person doing the same science. Why are people so impressed when some academy in Sweden gives an award?

- Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

I had an excellent math and physics teacher in high school named T.C. Patel, and in the university, I had truly dedicated professors in both physics and mathematics who gave me a sound foundation with which to pursue graduate studies.

- Venkatraman Ramakrishnan