The notion that inventors are anorak-wearing crackpots with glasses held together with Sellotape is beguiling but wrong.

The key to success is to risk thinking unconventional thoughts. Convention is the enemy of progress.

Visionaries and dreamers have always been dusted with a little oddity.

As long as you've got slightly more perception than the average wrapped loaf, you could invent something.

But having had your bright, fresh, original idea, the really hard part is turning it into a successful product. That's what takes all the sweat.

That was the Alka-Seltzer moment, the moment when the tablet hits the water and begins to fizz.

Invention isn't some impenetrable brand of magic; anyone can have a go.

All inventors, they say, are a little mad. I reckon that only completely sane people are willing to admit they are slightly crazy.

A good idea turns every cog in your mind, making you scared of bed in case the whole machine grinds to a halt.

Do what gives you a buzz.

I'd work eighteen-hour stretches and fall asleep in my clothes. Then I'd wake up in the middle of the night, brew a pot of tea, and start work again. I was tired, but work had become pure enjoyment.

Hearing him talk about his mother, about his intact family, makes my chest hurt for a second, like someone pierced it with a needle.

Joy is celestial.

The only thing that can create discord between friends is money and women.

Hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories...

Old-fashioned ways which no longer apply to changed conditions are a snare in which the feet of women have always become readily entangled.

Most writers flourish greatly on a simple, healthy routine with occasional time off for gaiety.

A lucky guess is never merely luck. There is always some talent in it.

Joking is a barrier between man and the world. Joking is the enemy of love and poetry.

Small daily - seemingly insignificant - improvements and innovations lead to staggering achievements over time.

I oppose the spending of trillions in Iraq and Afghanistan, I strongly oppose Islamic extremism but don't believe that sending troops to die in two unwinnable wars makes sense.