But you do enjoy working with students or do you?
No. I hate it. You do it as part of the job. Well, that's of course false...or maybe more true than false when I say I hate it. Occasionally there's a student who is a joy to work with. But I certainly would be just as happy if I had no graduate students. There are plenty of colleagues around here whom I can work with. There are plenty of research fellows; junior faculty. This is true all through the Cambridge area. [...] In general, working with a graduate student is like teaching a course. It's tedious, unpleasant work. A pain in the neck. You do it because you're paid to do it. If I weren't paid to do it I certainly would never do it.
[...] Teaching is unpleasant work. No question about it. It has its rewards. One feels happy about having a job well done. Washing the dishes, waxing the floors (things I also do on a regular basis since I'm a bachelor) have their rewards. I am pleased when I have done a good job waxing the floor and I've taken an enormous pile of dirty dishes and reduced them to sparkling clean ones. On the other hand, if I didn't have to, I would never engage in waxing the floors, although I'm good at it. I'm also good at teaching; I'm considered very good at teaching, both by myself and others. And I'm also terrifically good at washing dishes, in fact. On the other hand, I certainly would never make a bunch of dirty dishes just for the joy of washing them and I would not teach a course just for the joy of teaching a course.