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.

Well, gauge theory is very fundamental to our understanding of physical forces these days. But they are also dependent on a mathematical idea, which has been around for longer than gauge theory has.

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.

I was indeed very slow as a youngster.

It may well be there is something else going on in the brain that we don't have an inkling of at the moment.

But I think it is a serious issue to wonder about the other platonic absolutes of say beauty and morality.

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