James Dyson

“The Web is fascinating and transformative, but it's an easy, flashy, get-rich-quick option to the hard graft of proper industry.”

“Well, I'm rather attracted to rather prosaic things like vacuum cleaners and hand dryers. Where people haven't apparently made them with a great love for what they're doing.”

“An inventor's path is chorused with groans, riddled with fist-banging and punctuated by head scratches.”

“My interest in film is sort of catholic - apart from science fiction and horror movies, I'll watch almost everything.”

“At school, I enjoyed playing the bassoon. I was in the orchestra and played the melody when the other boys sang hymns at prayers time.”

“I imported the first Mac into England in 1984; you know, the beige box. I imported what I think were the first four that came into England. I never opened the instruction manual. That was th...”

“Far too few designers put any thought into usability, ending up with a great product that's completely inaccessible.”

“Companies are not ingenious, it's the people in them that are.”

“If you didn't have patents, no one would bother to spend money on research and development. But with patents, if someone has a good idea and a competitor can't copy it, then that competitor...”

“Insurance companies don't make anything.”

“The British judiciary needs to support intellectual property.”

“China can and will be an invaluable trading partner to both the U.S. and the U.K.”

“The U.S. is the biggest investor in research and development in the world. It has the best universities. Keeping them supplied with the best talent is essential.”

“People will make leaps of faith and get excited by your product if you just get it in front of them.”

“One of the most fun inventions of my lifetime is the Mini.”

“Anger is a good motivator.”

“Fear is always a good motivator.”

“Everybody recognizes that if you can make very efficient electric motors, you can make a quantum leap forward.”

“Britain's great strength is its innovative, design and engineering natural ability and we're not using it.”

“If you really want to improve technology, if you want things to work better and be better, you've got to protect the person who spends a lot of effort, money, and time developing that new te...”