The mathematical question is "Why?" It's always why. And the only way we know how to answer such questions is to come up, from scratch, with these narrative arguments that explain it. So what I want to do with this book is open up this world of mathematical reality, the creatures that we build there, the questions that we ask there, the ways in which we poke and prod (known as problems), and how we can possibly craft these elegant reason-poems.

The only thing I am interested in using mathematics for is to have a good time and to help others do the same.

It is the story that matters, not just the ending.

Mental acuity of any kind comes from solving problems yourself, not from being told how to solve them.

There is nothing as dreamy and poetic, nothing as radical, subversive, and psychedelic, as mathematics.

Mathematics is not a language, it's an adventure

To do mathematics is to engage in an act of discovery and conjecture, intuition and inspiration; to be in a state of confusion − not because it makes no sense to you, but because you gave it sense and you still don't understand what your creation is up to.