The reason why we do maths is because it's like poetry. It's about patterns, and that really turned me on. It made me feel that maths was in tune with the other things I liked doing.

Mathematics has beauty and romance. It's not a boring place to be, the mathematical world. It's an extraordinary place; it's worth spending time there.

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 point is with good maths skills you have just wonderful opportunities and if you don't have good maths skills, there are just so many things that you won't be able to do.

I think science is a foreign land for many people, so I think of my role as an ambassador's job.

I think my primary audience is in some sense an adult audience, because I think that will then have a knock-on effect for children.