I was indeed very slow as a youngster.

I was indeed very slow as a youngster.

This book is about physics and its about physics and its relationship with mathematics and how they seem to be intimately related and to what extent can you explore this relationship and trust it.

Ordinary photons do have spin, they have a notion of helicity so they spin around their direction on motion.

Some years ago, I wrote a book called the Emperor's New Mind and that book was describing a point of view I had about consciousness and why it was not something that comes about from complicated calculations.

People think of these eureka moments and my feeling is that they tend to be little things, a little realisation and then a little realisation built on that.

Well I didn't actually see the Matrix but I've seen other movies where with similar sorts of themes.

As for morality, well that's all tied up with the question of consciousness.

If you didn't have any conscious beings in the world, there really wouldn't be morality but with consciousness that you have it.

But I think it is a serious issue to wonder about the other platonic absolutes of say beauty and morality.

My own way of thinking is to ponder long and I hope deeply on problems and for a long time which I keep away for years and years and I never really let them go.

As you say, the way string theory requires all these extra dimensions and this comes from certain consistency requirements about how string should behave and so on.

I'm pretty tenacious when it comes to problems.

So what I'm saying is why don't we think about changing Schrodinger's equation at some level when masses become too big at the level that you might have to worry about Einstein's general relativity.

In the book, I make the point that here we have string theory and here we have twistor theory and we don't know if either one of them is the right approach to nature.

The basic theory in twistor theory is not to add extra dimensions.

Well, I don't know if I can comment on Kant or Hegel because I'm no real philosopher in the sense of knowing what these people have said in any detail so let me not comment on that too much.

And these little things may not seem like much but after a while they take you off on a direction where you may be a long way off from what other people have been thinking about.

The idea is if you use those two shapes and try to colour the plane with them so the colours match, then the only way that you can do this is to produce a pattern which never repeats itself.

Well, gauge theory is very fundamental to our understanding of physical forces these days. But they are also dependent on a mathematical idea, which has been around for longer than gauge theory has.

Some people take the view that the universe is simply there, and it runs along - it's a bit as though it just sort of computes, and we happen by accident to find ourselves in this thing. I don't think that's a very fruitful or helpful way of looking at the universe.

Some people take the view that we happen by accident. I think that there is something much deeper, of which we have very little inkling at the moment.

There is a certain sense in which I would say the universe has a purpose. It's not there by chance.

If the computer-guided robots turn out to be our superiors in every respect, then will they not find that they can run the world better without the need of us at all? Humanity itself will then have become obsolete.

I loved Hendrix. I mean, really, really loved him. As if he were one of the great classical composers. And he was. That's how I saw him.

Look at anyone's bookcase at home, no matter how modest, and you're going to find a book that contains wisdom or ideas or a language that's at least a thousand years old. And the idea that humans have created a mechanism to time travel, to hurl ideas into the future, it sort of bookends. Books are a time machine.

Creating sounds together with other musicians is something I've always liked doing.

A transition period is a period between two transition periods.

I love to talk about cooking and recipes, but I love as much talking about how food and cooking can change the world.

I will be 60 or 70 years old still rocking my Chanel blazer with my hair all coiffed.

It's gonna be a lot of zeroes in that contract. You gonna think it's alphabet soup or something, all those zeroes in there.

I like pushing the envelope. I like pushing myself and the audience, whether it's a TV show or live. I like to throw people over the edge of the cliff and scare the wits out of them, but then pull them back and make them safe.

That's the beauty of country music - you have to get out there and earn it and work hard. And when you're on the road with big name acts, you realize there's no easy way to the 'Promised Land' in this business.

One day, I'll disappear and hide in a corner of Britain. I'll own a bakery in a village, live above it, have a big garden because I like mowing. I want to get up when I feel like it, let people queue for my products, and when they're gone, shut the shop and think about tomorrow. Creating magic - that's my dream. And I'll do it.

Jobs are created by businesses, especially small and mid-sized businesses.

Claiming your life for yourself feels like a huge deal until you do it.

When it comes to lyrics, I just write down a lot of things, and only a very tiny fraction of it, I think, is any good.

I become absolutely reclusive when I'm not working, to the point where I question whether I can actually do it again.

The most challenging part of being CEO is communicating to 200,000 people what you want done.

I have a lot of fans, but a lot of people don't know who I am.

Be helpful even if theres no immediate profit in it.

To apologize for what you most wanted to do, to concede that it was obnoxious, boring, 'vulgar and unsafe' --- that was the worst thing.

Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you dont mind it doesnt matter

I wasn't dyslexic, I was just very slow. I passed my time daydreaming.

I think great songs appeal to people at any age. Kids love the Beatles, too. Kids love Tom T. Hall. Of course, Tom T. wrote some things that were specifically for kids. But I think kids recognize quality more than they get credit for sometimes.

I have no secrets. I decided very early on in life that the strongest position was to be completely open.

He came to the States in 1963, I think with a view to making up with my mother, but that didn't work. He came for three weeks, and drank his way all over Brooklyn. And went back... I went to his funeral in Belfast.

Do not be afraid to offer ideas that draw opposition. Remember, if no one is against your idea, then your idea probably doesn't do anything.