The reason why we do maths is because it's like poetry. It's about patterns, and that really turned me on. It made me feel that maths was in tune with the other things I liked doing.

Mathematics is a place where you can do things which you can't do in the real world.

Mathematics has beauty and romance. It's not a boring place to be, the mathematical world. It's an extraordinary place; it's worth spending time there.

The point is with good maths skills you have just wonderful opportunities and if you don't have good maths skills, there are just so many things that you won't be able to do.

You know, I'm not terribly fast at my times tables, because that's not what I think mathematics is about.

Theory is needed to tell you where to look.

Primes are the atoms of the arithmetic - the hydrogen and oxygen of the world of numbers

The power of mathematics is often to change one thing into another, to change geometry into language.

I'm obviously attuned to pick up mathematics whenever I can see it. But in Mozart there is a lot of conscious use of mathematical symbolism and numbers in order to try and give messages.

If you can make yourself symmetrical, you're sending out a sign that you've got good genes, you've got a good upbringing and therefore you'll make a good mate.

I think science is a foreign land for many people, so I think of my role as an ambassador's job.

It is important to note that a transitional phase has to be uncomfortable for you to move on to the next stage, lest procrastination stymies you.

I also have to speak out for people around me who are afraid, who think it is not worth it or who have totally given up hope. So I want to set an example: you can do it and this is OK, to speak out.

The [China] government has improved in the last years. Of course, the structure is still the same; there's still a one-party system and strong censorship.

Ethics is in its unqualified form extended responsibility with regard to everything that has life.

Every hero is a Samson. The strong man succumbs to the intrigues of the weak and the many; and if in the end he loses all patience he crushes both them and himself.

In real life, one of my friends was killed in a car accident during our sophomore year.

To hate, to love, to think, to feel, to see; all this is nothing but to perceive.

Design is as much an act of spacing as an act of marking.

What do you do when it rains?" The captain answered frankly. "I get wet.

Happiness isn't a one-size-fits-all proposition. You must define what it looks like for you and then make a conscious effort to access whatever gets you to your unique definition of joy.