Kenneth G. Wilson's Quotes

In 1975 I met Alison Brown and in 1982 we were married. She works for Cornell Computer Services.

In consequence, science is more important than ever for industrial technology.

Industry now should become a full partner of government in supporting longrange basic research.

My graduate studies were carried out at the California Institute of Technology.

One other hobby of mine has been playing the oboe but I have not kept this up after 1969.

Scientists under all forms of government must be able to participate fully in international efforts.

The hardest problems of pure and applied science can only be solved by the open collaboration of the world-wide scientific community.

The scientist's inquiry into the causes of things is providing an ever more extensive understanding of nature.

My father was on the faculty in the Chemistry Department of Harvard University; my mother had one year of graduate work in physics before her marriage.

My grandfather on my mother's side was a professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; my other grandfather was a lawyer, and one time Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives.

The Nobel award occasions a unique celebration of the vision of science by the public at large. The prestige the prize confers today is largely due to the extraordinary diligence of the Nobel committees.

Through this additional support, we must renew our commitment to provide talented young people with the opportunity to build scientific careers based on their curiosity, the same opportunity that was provided to me when I began my work.

While at Cal Tech I talked a lot with Jon Mathews, then a junior faculty member; he taught me how to use the Institute's computer; we also went on hikes together.

Children do have the potential to kill art. But now I think they kill the bad art. At least that is what my son has done for me.

I grew up not reading fiction; I watched movies and read comic books, and one of the ways I taught myself to think about narrative was through film.

I grew up reading not-serious literature, like comic books and pulp novels, so my instinct is to amuse the reader and entertain.

I have a kind of unhealthy obsession with movies.

Short stories, for me, it's like you step inside this brand new car and you drive it and you drive it into a tree and you walk away from it.

I don't know if it's good or bad, but when I first started writing I imitated the narrative thrust of a movie. And as I worked, I learned what you can do in fiction that you can't do in movies, and vice-versa.

My parents were distrustful of the outside world. They didn't think much good came out of it... The outside world was this strange place that was not so much dangerous as not as interesting as what went on in the house.