Top 165 Quotes & Sayings by Anne Wojcicki - Page 2

It's up to all of us, the consumers, to take charge of our health. It's almost like voting. It's your responsibility.

It's not just professional athletes and soldiers who are at risk from traumatic brain injury. More than 1.7 million people a year sustain a traumatic brain injury, and about 50,000 of them die each year, according the Centers for Disease Control. There are both emotional and financial costs from these injuries.

I like company lunches because I think going out wastes valuable time; plus, a lot of good ideas come up over lunch.

People are used to dealing with risk. You are told if you smoke, you are at higher risk of lung cancer. And I think people are able to also understand, when they are told they are a carrier for a genetic disease, that is not a risk to them personally but something that they could pass on to children.

Billions of dollars have been put into genetic research.

23andme is very independent and committed to focusing on transparency.

I think there's a lot of misunderstanding about genetic information and what you can and cannot learn. One of the things we try to do is educate individuals that knowing information is empowering.

I think it's important to have flexibility to work wherever is best for you. I actually encourage people to work at the cafe - or from home or wherever works best for them.

I think being on a constraint with money makes you much more creative.

I grew up with my mom being very, very cheap, so when it's free, I'm like, 'Oh my God, it's free - I have to take as much as I can!'

I believe that we all have freedom to shape our own life and the world around us.

I carry my iPad and laptop with me everywhere.

My divorce wasn't fun.

When you try new things, you will make mistakes. That's OK.

There's not enough competition and innovation in healthcare.

I first heard about 'genes' when I was six years old. At dinner one night, I heard my mom tell my sister, 'It's in your genes.'

I have an unreasonably optimistic view of the world.

You don't necessarily want your physician to have all your information.

Every couple of weeks, someone writes in and says, '23andMe saved my life.'

We have been trained not to think about our health care until there's a problem.

You may not know your complete family history, but the reality is everyone has something, and as you get older, you start to worry about these things more. Health is not sort of like a 6-month project. Health is a lifetime accumulation of behaviors.

You can get so much value just from being genotyped.

I usually start my day when my kids wake up.

TIVO was a big shift in how people watched TV, but everyone understood the concept of TV. No one really understands the concept of, well why would I want my genetic information?

I had a very unusual childhood in that I grew up on the Stanford campus and I never moved.

We don't have enough data about how lifestyle decisions impact our health.

I think that the idea of people wanting to steal your genome remains a little bit in the world of science fiction. It's a new technology, and it's new science that people are becoming familiar with. It's critical for us to do everything we can to enable the privacy level that people want.

Just as computer technology and the Internet created whole new industries and extraordinary benefits for people that extend into almost every realm of human endeavor from education to transportation to medicine, genetics will undoubtedly benefit people everywhere in ways we can't even imagine but know will surely occur.

I still meet old-school scientists who are like, 'Oh honey, women aren't good at science.' You kind of dismiss them as insane.

Employment and health insurance are now protected by the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.

A few small changes in your DNA can turn your eyes blue, make you lactose intolerant or put some curl in your hair.

It's worth knowing more about the complicated environmental and genetic factors that could explain why traumatic brain injuries lead to long-term disabilities in some people and not in others.

You should know how to take care of yourself. That's one of the things that I got from my mother most - she always said that if you don't take care of yourself, no one will.

For people who want to be proactive about their health, there is a lot of information that we can provide. If you are going to have children, I think you have a responsibility to know if you are carrying anything. A lot of people tend to do the testing once they are pregnant.

My sister learned she was a carrier for a recessive disease, Bloom syndrome, late in one of her pregnancies. I remember the panicked call and the weeks of worry as she and her husband awaited his test results; if he was also a carrier, this meant their daughter had a one in four chance of being born with the disorder.

I want the world's data accessible.

If you don't read it, you don't know. I mean, that's why I have a PR team. They read it and tell me if there's something, and that keeps you focused. I know my family and me well enough; why do I need to read about myself? I'm not going to change, I'm very stubborn in this way. I am what I am.

The fact that my environment influences my life so much - and that my environment is in my control - gives me a great sense of empowerment over my health and my life.

I think there's a lot of misunderstanding about genetic information and what you can and cannot learn.

I get parking tickets all the time.

Big data is going to make us all healthier.

Pharma companies don't have a direct relationship with consumers, so they're always subjects.

There's going to be space travel at some point.

Nobody can quantify for you what's the impact of eating fiber every day, for instance. We can say we think it's good. But some people might say 'Oh, it reduces your risk of colon cancer by 20%, some people might say it reduces your risk by 25%.'

We all want our genetic information. Why would you not want genetic information?

I think the biggest problem in clinical trials is that they are underpowered. And that fundamentally, the studies are just too small.

A lot of genetic testing hasn't been integrated into healthcare because it has been expensive. I want to make people realise that they have the ability to be in charge of their own health.

I hope that Los Altos is one of the first cities to have self-driving cars, and if that's true, well, awesome, because there's a lot of parking lots that we could get rid of and use for parks. That would be amazing!

Health is not sort of like a 6-month project. Health is a lifetime accumulation of behaviors.

There's enough data showing that the fitter you are, the better you eat, the more likely you are to stay healthy longer.

I think that the idea of people wanting to steal your genome remains a little bit in the world of science fiction.

I think that for people who are trying to make a difference, you have to start the company being naive. You wouldn't do it if you understood all the work. I work a lot. I wish it was easier.

I think we're just scratching the surface. One of the most exciting aspects of 23andMe is that we're enabling you to watch a revolution unfold live during your lifetime, and I think that the decoding of the genome, in my opinion, is the most fascinating discovery of our lifetime, and you get to be part of it.

One of the big drivers for me is that health care is a very elitist system. As much as we try to make it free and democratic for all, the reality is that it's expensive and not all therapies are accessible to all people. So I have been very focused on making sure that we democratize genetic information so it's available to everyone.

In Silicon Valley, you want things done instantly.

Being able to do research in a real-time way is the way research needs to be done in the future.

There's massive government initiatives going around the world, and you see that there's a real enthusiasm for genetics.

The challenge in a startup is you hit a lot of turbulence, and you want people who understand that it's just turbulence and not a crisis.

There's nothing worse than walking into a hospital and seeing people sick and miserable and having a horrible treatment.

One of the most exciting aspects of 23andMe is that we're enabling you to watch a revolution unfold live during your lifetime, and I think that the decoding of the genome, in my opinion, is the most fascinating discovery of our lifetime, and you get to be part of it.