“Because my father was an army officer, I was told to enter the military school during the war. Luckily or unluckily, one month before the entrance examination, I got polio, which made my right arm numb. It's still numb.”

“Fundamental science that may not achieve results must be supported at the state level.”

“Fusion has not been proven to be safe, and it is too costly.”

“I have made some mistakes. No, a lot of mistakes. If you want to develop a new thing, a lot of mistakes will be inevitable. We should be allowed to make mistakes.”

“In the western world, you can go out, take a boat trip to the Caribbean and so forth, and buy good things with your own money. But the Russian people with rubles cannot do that.”

“It would be troubling if everything is determined by whether profits will be made within five to six years.”

“Nuclear countries are those countries that are big and powerful. It is difficult to criticize them and try to lead them onto a humanitarian path. But we can only do what we can and appeal to their sense of reason.”

“Science in textbooks is not fun. But if you start doing science yourself, you will find delight.”

“Science is to do research because of the target's fascinating and interesting characteristics.”

“The next big project, you yourself have to conceive.”

“There are cases when it takes 50 or 100 years for fundamental science to achieve results.”