We've lost something that's been with us for so long, and something that drew a lot of us into mathematics. But perhaps that's always the way with math problems, and we just have to find new ones to capture our attention.

That particular odyssey is now over. My mind is now at rest.

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

I know it's a rare privilege, but if one can really tackle something in adult life that means that much to you, then it's more rewarding than anything I can imagine.

I really believed that I was on the right track, but that did not mean that I would necessarily reach my goal

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 extremely hard to solve. There's no reason why these problems shouldn't be easy, and yet they turn out to be extremely intricate. Fermat's Last Theorem is the most beautiful example of this.

But the best problem I ever found, I found in my local public library.