I carried this problem around in my head basically the whole time. I would wake up with it first thing in the morning, I would be thinking about it all day, and I would be thinking about it when I went to sleep. Without distraction I would have the same thing going round and round in my mind.

Pure mathematicians just love to try unsolved problems - they love a challenge.

I grew up in Cambridge in England, and my love of mathematics dates from those early childhood days.

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

Just because we can't find a solution it doesn't mean that there isn't one.

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.

Mathematics... is a bit like discovering oil. ... But mathematics has one great advantage over oil, in that no one has yet ... found a way that you can keep using the same oil forever.