I feel traveling certainly does broaden the mind. In my case certainly I feel more confident. It gives you a new perspective on the world.

It was hard for me to find my voice because I was, for so long, absorbed in my own world.

I consider social skills a bit like learning a language. I've been practising it for so long over so many years I've almost lost my accent.

When I achieved the European record for reciting pi in 2004, this captured the imagination of Professor Simon Baron-Cohen in Cambridge and he finally diagnosed me with Asperger's that year.

Moment by moment throughout our lifetime, our brains hum with the work of making meaning: weaving together many thousands of threads of information into all manner of thoughts, feelings, memories, and ideas.

I do read a lot, and I think in recent years the ratio between the amount of non-fiction and fiction has tipped quite considerably. I did read fiction as a teenager as well, mostly because I was forced to read fiction, of course, to go through high school.

I love music. I have a fondness for Chopin, and I very much like his 'Raindrop Prelude.'