“Statistically, it would seem improbable that any mathematician or scientist, at the age of 66, would be able through continued research efforts, to add much to his or her previous achievements.”

I had been offered fellowships to enter as a graduate student at either Harvard or Princeton.

I seem to be thinking rationally again in the style that is characteristic of scientists. However this is not entirely a matter of joy as if someone returned from physical disability to good physical health.

I would not dare to say that there is a direct relation between mathematics and madness, but there is no doubt that great mathematicians suffer from maniacal characteristics, delirium and symptoms of schizophrenia.

I have made the most important discovery of my career, the most important discovery of my life.

To some extent, people who are insane are nonconformists, and society and their family wish they would live what appear to be useful lives.

However I am still making the effort and it is conceivable that with the gap period of about 25 years of partially deluded thinking providing a sort of vacation my situation may be atypical.

There are things that tend to moderate with age. Schizophrenia is somewhat like that.

Classes will dull your mind, destroy the potential for authentic creativity.

Gradually I began to intellectually reject some of the delusionally influenced lines of thinking which had been characteristic of my orientation.

Though I had success in my research both when I was mad and when I was not, eventually I felt that my work would be better respected if I thought and acted like a ‘normal’ person.

Nowadays we can do computer experiments using Mathematica, and even solve a system of 42 equations. This offers another route to knowledge, rather than mere ideas.

The man who owns up to arthritis in a beri-beri year is as lonely as a woman in a last month’s dress.

But the Princeton fellowship was somewhat more generous, since I had not actually won the Putnam competition… Thus Princeton became the choice for my graduate study location.

I would become a therapist and a leader in terms of mental illness. But I’m not in the position.

As you will find in multivariable calculus, there is often a number of solutions for any given problem.

People are always selling the idea that people with mental illness are suffering.

I am so used to having a comfortable life. What will it be like when I am no longer able to just buy anything I want?

The thing that is probably most important is having a brain, and to be able to figure things out and learn things very rapidly.

It’s quite difficult for me not to be able to return to my country, but in my country justice has been murdered.

I feel really passionately about safe, comfortable roads, crosswalks, and sidewalks. Everyone of all economic backgrounds should be able to get to school or the grocery store safely and efficiently so they can live better lives.

If I’d had fame early on, I’d have been able to abuse it in the way that a young man should.

You let things run in order to have some sanity and be able to do your work and not feel pre-judged.

To me, success is one’s ability to keep the faith, develop his God-given talents, and be able to honestly say at the close of life, “the world is a better place because I have lived.”

When I finished my A-levels, I assumed I’d be able to get work as an actor. But I couldn’t. I didn’t get an audition. Nothing. So I thought I’d better train and then the parts would come.