A lot of the math that I do, it's not sort of premeditated. I talk online or with a colleague, and I get interested, and I just follow where it leads.

Next quotes

• Terence Tao:

  Most of what I do does not save lives.

• Terence Tao:

  I was never very good at school with... humanities... anything which was more a matter of opinion.

• Terence Tao:

  Math research is more like a marathon.

• Terence Tao:

  I remember having this vague idea that what mathematicians did was that some authority, someone, ga

• Terence Tao:

  I always liked numbers.

• Terence Tao:

  I always liked situations where there were very clear rules of what to do.

• Terence Tao:

  You want to get to the top of the cliff. But that's not what you focus on immediately. You focus on

• Terence Tao:

  It was traditional to not actually cash the prizes that Erdos did award while he was alive. People

• Terence Tao:

  When I was seven or eight, whenever I was getting too rowdy at night, my parents would give me a ma

• Terence Tao:

  I often don't know what I'll be working on next year or a year from now. There is often a chance me