I've obviously used fans - I wouldn't say all my life, because we couldn't afford them when I was young, but from my 20s and onwards we've had to use fans. And I've always loathed them. Everything about them. The way you adjust them, getting them at the angle you want. Carrying them. Cleaning them. The danger of putting your finger in them.

When decisions on nuclear power stations and runways are delayed and the government dilly-dallies, people think they aren't important.

Anyone developing new products and new technology needs one characteristic above all else: hope.

The computer dictates how you do something, whereas with a pencil you're totally free.

There's nothing wrong with things taking time.

The key to success is failure… Success is made of 99 percent failure.

I'm not into politics but I am committed to a cause: ensuring design technology and engineering stays on the U.K. curriculum, alongside science and maths - grounding abstract theory, merging the practical with the academic.