As a mathematician Erdös is what in other fields is called a "natural". If a problem can be stated in terms he can understand, though it may belong t… - Mark Kac

There was hardly a page in Markov's book which did not feature the normal law and it cast a spell over me from which I have never fully recovered. Adding to the fascination was the impression that somehow the normal law was the key to mysterious and elusive world of chance phenomena.

I didn't even try to penetrate the comics, though many years later I came, somewhat grudgingly, to admire Pogo.

Creative people live in two worlds. One is the ordinary world which they share with others and in which they are not in any special way set apart from their fellow men. The other is private and it is in this world that the creative acts take place.