People think of these eureka moments and my feeling is that they tend to be little things, a little realisation and then a little realisation built on that.

As you say, the way string theory requires all these extra dimensions and this comes from certain consistency requirements about how string should behave and so on.

Consciousness ... is the phenomenon whereby the universe's very existence is made known.

I was indeed very slow as a youngster.

I would say the universe has a purpose. It's not there just somehow by chance.

The basic theory in twistor theory is not to add extra dimensions.

My own way of thinking is to ponder long and I hope deeply on problems and for a long time which I keep away for years and years and I never really let them go.