I think we're in a very exciting time - visually, I think we are. I've not got a crystal ball. I'm not saying I know what the future is at all. In some ways I'm getting quite pessimistic about the future, but in other ways I think it might get better. We are moving into very big changes.

I mean if you draw you like drawing, it's er, an activity you do all the time actually.

I see the iPad as a wonderful new drawing medium, but I am at a loss as to how to make it pay.

I stay up nights and fiddle with my opera designs. It's a bit obsessive. That's why I can't do it all the time.

In the end nobody knows how it's done — how art is made. It can't be explained. Optical devices are just tools. Understanding a tool doesn't explain the magic of creation. Nothing can.

I've always been interested in space in pictures. I think my going deaf increased my spatial sense, because I can't get the direction of sound. I feel that I see space very clearly, and that's because I can't hear it. So it's a compensatory thing.

I do do a lot of talking, because it saves me listening.