A good idea turns every cog in your mind, making you scared of bed in case the whole machine grinds to a halt.

Ideas for gadgets for the disabled were coming into my head so fast they seemed to be arriving from somewhere outside of me, beamed down by an unremitting force. I had little control over them, or their flow. I would wake up in the middle of the night. A blinding flash of an idea would rouse me from my bed and I'd rush down to my workshop to have a go at it before the inspiration dimmed.

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

Invention isn't some impenetrable brand of magic; anyone can have a go.

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

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

I'd work eighteen-hour stretches and fall asleep in my clothes. Then I'd wake up in the middle of the night, brew a pot of tea, and start work again. I was tired, but work had become pure enjoyment.