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

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

The stage is like a laboratory where you can run theatrical experiments, imposing interesting conditions on the cast or story and seeing how they pan out. Each new play is like creating a tiny virtual universe enclosed by the confines of the stage.

Its my belief that you can take everyone down a logical path if you take them slowly enough, and the trouble is that mathematical brains can get scrambled a little bit on the way. You get a bad teacher, it messes you up for the rest of the journey.

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

But actually a code is a language for translating one thing into another. And mathematics is the language of science. My big thesis is that although the world looks messy and chaotic, if you translate it into the world of numbers and shapes, patterns emerge and you start to understand why things are the way they are.

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