'God gave Linus Pauling to chemistry'

The most important thing to do every day of my life is listen to classical music. I listen for at least an hour in the afternoon after lunch or early morning. It’s a very important part of my life. Usually it’s Indian classic. I’m travelling, I’m abroad, but here I have a music system next to my table. When I was young, I’d be in the lab until about 7.30pm in the evening, then play a little badminton or something. But now I’m 85 years old I don’t do anything like that. I listen to music, or read. I do a lot of reading outside of chemistry – historical novels particularly. Right now I’m reading a book called Darwin’s Backyard by James Costa. It’s a very nice book.