I feel traveling certainly does broaden the mind. In my case certainly I feel more confident. It gives you a new perspective on the world.

I love music. I have a fondness for Chopin, and I very much like his 'Raindrop Prelude.'

I have never played the lottery in my life and never will. Voltaire described lotteries as a tax on stupidity. More specifically, I think, on innumeracy.

There is no such thing as an average person. They really are guidelines for people to grapple with the unknown, and we can always surprise expectations.

Every culture has contributed to maths just as it has contributed to literature. It's a universal language; numbers belong to everyone.

It was hard for me to find my voice because I was, for so long, absorbed in my own world.

You don't have to be disabled to be different, because everybody's different.

When I multiply numbers together, I see two shapes. The image starts to change and evolve, and a third shape emerges. That's the answer. It's mental imagery. It's like maths without having to think.

The human brain is like a memory system that records every thing that happens to us and makes intelligent predictions based on those experiences.

I changed my name because it didn't fit with the way I saw myself.

When I achieved the European record for reciting pi in 2004, this captured the imagination of Professor Simon Baron-Cohen in Cambridge and he finally diagnosed me with Asperger's that year.

The purpose of art is higher than art. What we are really interested in are masterpieces of humanity.

I grew up Presbyterian, just a basic Protestant upbringing. There were years in my life when I would go to church every Sunday and to Sunday school. Then I just phased out of it.

When I'm asked what my girls will think when they grow up, I'll tell them that they have to keep their clothes on till they're 40. But when they're 40, they can make their own decisions.

Those who build and perpetuate mediocrity...are motivated more by the fear of being left behind.

It is the ultimate wisdom of the mountains that a man is never more a man than when he is striving for what is beyond his grasp.

Perception rules the world. Everyone knows that. Where we live and where we're from, you just can't escape it.

I would strongly encourage anybody embarking on photography as a career to embrace and enjoy the whole process. Being a photographer can be a wonderful way to experience the world.

There were too many idiot men in the world, to her way of thinking. And most of them ended up bumping up against stubborn women.

I would like to run for the mayor of the city of Chicago. That has always been an aspiration of mine even when I was in the House of Representatives.

The purpose of our practice is just to be yourself.