Mathematicians, I think, are trained to be very precise and very brief – no padding – you don't pad things out in mathematics, that's criticised. And as you go on in a professional life in mathematics you aim to become more and more adept at distilling out the essential point as simply as possible and you cut out all the paraphernalia. So brevity, succinctness, sharpness are all key factors for a mathematician. Whereas if you want to… in the literary side, it's things… people have to be decorated, embellished, elaborated, expanded, so then there's a conflict, and so I find finding long things with padding them out inherently difficult. I'd finish my essay and find it was half the length, or less, and I couldn't see how you could improve on it. I think there's a kind of… I've always found that difficult and subsequently I even have the same problem when I have to give a speech or a talk and I have to do a lot of these things these days. I'm getting better but I find it's very hard to, you know, fill the time. I say it briefly and that's it.

[Q] I’m sure it’s much appreciated.