Pierre Deligne

“Usually mathematicians are either theory builders, who develop tools, or problem-solvers, who use those tools to find solutions... Deligne is unusual in being both. He’s got a very special mind.”

“In Récoltes et Semailles, Grothendieck counts his twelve disciples. The central character is Pierre Deligne, who combines in this tale the features of John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, and Judas the betrayer. The weight of symbols!”

“From [Grothendieck] and his example, I have also learned not to take glory in the difficulty of a proof: difficulty means we have not understood. The ideal is to be able to paint a landscape in which the proof is obvious.”

“The nice thing about mathematics is doing mathematics.”