The nucleons, which are the constituent particles of the atomic nucleus, are themselves dressed in a thick pion cloud due to the breaking of chiral symmetry. Pions also play a central role in the interactions between nucleons. The binding energy of the nucleus is provided through the strong tensor force mediated by pions. Excited states with high momentum generated by the tensor force may exhibit characteristic spectra. These are explored through pion knockout reactions (p, p'π). Nuclear physics is thus described with pions playing the central role.