But having had your bright, fresh, original idea, the really hard part is turning it into a successful product. That's what takes all the sweat.

As long as you've got slightly more perception than the average wrapped loaf, you could invent something.

Do what gives you a buzz.

I was on automatic pilot; ideas for gadgets kept coming, fed by a force of energy flowing through me and around me.

The key to success is to risk thinking unconventional thoughts. Convention is the enemy of progress.

The notion that inventors are anorak-wearing crackpots with glasses held together with Sellotape is beguiling but wrong.

Visionaries and dreamers have always been dusted with a little oddity.