Andrew Wiles

“Some mathematics problems look simple, and you try them for a year or so, and then you try them for a hundred years, and it turns out that they're probably not going to be solved in our lifetime.”

“You can have the most beautiful proof, but if it's for a trivial problem, it's not going to get you anywhere.”

“Pure mathematicians just love to try unsolved problems — they love a challenge.”

“The definition of a good mathematical problem is the mathematics it generates, rather than the problem itself.”

“Perhaps I could best describe my experience of doing mathematics in terms of a journey through a dark unexplored mansion. You enter the first room of the mansion and it's completely dark. You stumble around bumping into the furniture, but gradually you learn where each piece of furniture is. Finally, after six months or so, you find the light switch, you turn it on, and suddenly it's all illuminated. You can see exactly where you were.”

“What you're doing is finding a new way of thinking about something. That's what mathematics is.”

“I was so lucky to be able to work on it. I'd be fibbing if I said I'd have the same passion for another problem. I had the good fortune to be there at the right time.”

“I had this very rare privilege of being able to pursue in my adult life, what had been my childhood dream.”

“That particular moment of revelation, of illumination, which can happen after months, or years, of groping in the dark, is in fact the goal of the search.”

“It’s a wonderful feeling, but it’s also a slightly sad feeling. You’ve lost something. The problem is no longer there.”