This review presents a personal overview of my interferon research. I relate the interests of my laboratory to the overall progress in the interferon field during the past 25 years. On behalf of the interferon community, I thank the Milstein family for their generosity and wisdom to recognize and honor basic research. The role of basic research has been downplayed periodically, but I hope it will become obvious from my recollections that it has been basic research that has made the field as exciting as it is today and that that basic research provided a rational basis for new types of approaches for the clinical use of interferon and other cytokines. My recollections also reveal that research, especially as practiced today, reflects a team effort, even when a honor like the Milstein Award is made to an individual, and that interactions among the members of a research group, as well as their colleagues in the field, stand as one of the most enjoyable features in the life of a scientist.