Most entrepreneurs will admit luck plays a part in success.

I was fortunate enough, after many visits to many wonderful, weird people to come across Burt Rutan, who is a genius in the Mojave Desert. And SpaceShipOne was born and had three flights into space that won something called the X Prize. And from there, we're building SpaceShipTwo, which is ... a beautiful spaceship that is very, very, very nearly completed and will be ready from about next Christmas onwards to start taking people into space.

We're introducing separate rooms with double beds in all of our planes so people can actually go with their partner and have a proper night's sleep...

Half the art of ballooning is to make your crashes so gentle that you can fool yourself into calling them landings.

We all know about the big world conflicts: Israel and Palestine, Zimbabwe, and so on. But there are smaller conflicts that aren't even on the world's radar screen; most of the world has no idea that Ethiopia invaded Somalia a year ago. It makes sense for the Elders to sit down with both sides and see whether leaders can come to an understanding.

I never went into business to make money, but I have found that if I have fun, the money will come.

The balloons only have one life and the only way of finding out whether they work is to attempt to fly around the world.