Andrew Wiles Quotes:

Always try the problem that matters most to you.

source: - "Andrew Wiles on Solving Fermat". "NOVA" Interview, www.pbs.org. November 1, 2000.

Topics: Trying, Matter, Problem

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

source: - "Andrew Wiles on Solving Fermat". "The Proof", episode of "NOVA", www.pbs.org. November 01, 2000.

Topics: Challenges, Trying, Problem, Unsolved Problems

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

source: - "Andrew Wiles on Solving Fermat". The NOVA Interview, www.pbs.org. November 1, 2000.

Topics: Dream, Childhood, Adults, Childhood Dreams

Mathematicians aren't satisfied because they know there are no solutions up to four million or four billion, they really want to know that there are no solutions up to infinity.

source: - "Andrew Wiles on Solving Fermat". www.pbs.org. November 1, 2000.

Topics: Four, Want, Infinity

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

source: - "Andrew Wiles on Solving Fermat". The NOVA Interview, www.pbs.org. November 1, 2000.

Topics: Definitions, Problem, Mathematics, Mathematical Problems

There are proofs that date back to the Greeks that are still valid today.

source: - "Andrew Wiles on Solving Fermat". "NOVA", www.pbs.org. November 1, 2000.

Topics: Greek, Today, Proof

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.

source: - "Andrew Wiles on Solving Fermat". The NOVA Interview, www.pbs.org. November 1, 2000.

Topics: Math, Long, Attention, Math Problems

The greatest problem for mathematicians now is probably the Riemann Hypothesis.

source: - "Andrew Wiles on Solving Fermat". The NOVA Interview, www.pbs.org. November 1, 2000.

Topics: Problem, Hypothesis, Mathematician, Riemann

It's fine to work on any problem, so long as it generates interesting mathematics along the way - even if you don't solve it at the end of the day.

source: - "Andrew Wiles on Solving Fermat". NOVA Interview, www.pbs.org. November 1, 2000.

Topics: Work, Long, Interesting

Then when I reached college I realized that many people had thought about the problem during the 18th and 19th centuries and so I studied those methods.

Topics: College, Umpires, People

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.

source: - "Andrew Wiles on Solving Fermat". The NOVA Interview, www.pbs.org. November 1, 2000.

Topics: Morning, Sleep, Science

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

source: - "Andrew Wiles on Solving Fermat". The NOVA Interview, www.pbs.org. November 01, 2000.

Topics: Library, Problem, Found

Fermat said he had a proof.

source: - "Andrew Wiles on Solving Fermat". The NOVA Interview, www.pbs.org. November 01, 2000.

Topics: Proof, Said

I loved doing problems in school.

Topics: School, Problem, Problems In School

The only way I could relax was when I was with my children.

Topics: Children, Relax, Way

I tried to fit it in with some previous broad conceptual understanding of some part of mathematics that would clarify the particular problem I was thinking about.

source: - "Andrew Wiles on Solving Fermat". NOVA Interview, www.pbs.org. November 1, 2000.

Topics: Thinking, Understanding, Problem, Clarifying, Conceptual Thinking

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

source: - "Andrew Wiles on Solving Fermat". NOVA Interview, www.pbs.org. November 1, 2000.

Topics: Mind, Odyssey, Particular

I was so obsessed by this problem that I was thinking about it all the time - when I woke up in the morning, when I went to sleep at night - and that went on for eight years.

source: - "Andrew Wiles on Solving Fermat". NOVA Interview, www.pbs.org. November 1, 2000.

Topics: Morning, Sleep, Night

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

source: - "Andrew Wiles on Solving Fermat". The NOVA Interview, www.pbs.org. November 1, 2000.

Topics: Love, Childhood, England, Cambridge, Early Childhood

I never use a computer.

Topics: Use, Computer, Mathematical

Perhaps I could best describe my experience of doing mathematics in terms of entering a dark mansion. You go into the first room and it's dark, completely dark. You stumble around, bumping into the furniture. Gradually, you learn where each piece of furniture is. And finally, after six months or so, you find the light switch and turn it on. Suddenly, it's all illuminated and you can see exactly where you were. Then you enter the next dark room...

Topics: Dark, Light, Entering, Mansions, Dark Room

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

source: - "Andrew Wiles on Solving Fermat". "NOVA" Interview, www.pbs.org. November 1, 2000.

Topics: Mean, Solutions

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.

source: - "Andrew Wiles on Solving Fermat". The NOVA Interview, www.pbs.org. November 1, 2000.

Topics: Mean, Adults, Privilege

However impenetrable it seems, if you don't try it, then you can never do it.

source: - "Andrew Wiles on Solving Fermat". "NOVA" Interview, www.pbs.org. November 1, 2000.

Topics: Trying

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

source: - "Andrew Wiles on Solving Fermat". Nova (TV series), www.pbs.org. November 01, 2000.

Topics: Mean, Track, 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.

source: - "Andrew Wiles on Solving Fermat". The NOVA Interview, www.pbs.org. November 1, 2000.

Topics: Beautiful, Simple, Years

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.

Topics: Science, Oil, Forever

Then when I reached college, I realized that many people had thought about the problem during the 18th and 19th centuries and so I studied those methods.

source: - "Andrew Wiles on Solving Fermat". NOVA Interview, www.pbs.org. November 1, 2000.

Topics: College, Umpires, People, 19th Century