Grigori Perelman

I don't want to be a part of the ego.

I don't want to be a part of the pride.

I don't want to be a part of the arrogance.

I don't want to be a part of the self-importance.

I don't want to be a part of the self-aggrandizement.

I'm not a hero of mathematics. I'm not even that successful; that is why I don't want to have everybody looking at me.

If everyone is honest, it is natural to tell the truth. If you have a society consisting of crooks, it is natural to lie.

I know how to control the Universe. So tell me, why should I run for a million?

It is not people who break ethical standards who are regarded as aliens. It is people like me who are isolated.

I do not think anything that I say can be of the slightest public interest.

I have already learned all I wanted to learn from Western mathematics. I have what I wanted.

I am not interested in money or fame. I do not want to be on display like an animal in a zoo.

The Poincaré conjecture is interesting because it is a hard problem, and hard problems need to be solved.

I had a choice: whether to make some big money or not to make some big money. I chose not to.

For me, the reward is the solution itself.

I do not regard it as a positive thing that I am seen as a freak.

I do not want to discuss my work. It attracts too much attention.

I am not a person who can be bought.

You are trying to push me into a big circus that I do not want.

I have refused.