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N:
- What do maths
mean to you?
JP:
- They allow
me to escape, most of all they also allow me
rigour, which is very important. Mathematical
rigour is something fundamental.
N:
- What do
you like about rigour?
JP:
- There's
only one solution, either you're right or you're
wrong. It's a sort of violence, you see where you
get beaten, there's no half measure.
N:
- It's an
all-or-nothing way.
JP:
-
Yeah, while
in physics, it's a middle way, it's the doldrums.
I'm not being very nice with
physicists...
N:
-
This is the way
you feel, this is what matters.
JP:
- Yeah, in
maths, you can't really distort things, they can't
be different. I've always liked rigour. When I was
a kid, I remember, I would ask to be whipped. It's
quite strange but I liked rigour, I liked all that
is clear.
N:
- You would ask
to be whipped?
JP:
- I remember
one year when I was a kid, I must have been 6, I
realized I didn't work enough, I said to my
parents: "I can't work, I never do anything.", it
was tragic, but as my marks were not too bad, they
didn't say anything, but I felt I couldn't work, so
I said to them: "Since I never do anything, whip
me!"
And they never
did.
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