For Thurston, as for most creative mathematicians, mathematics is a sensual and carnal experience that is located upstream from language. Logical formalism is at the heart of the apparatus that makes this experience possible. Math books may be unreadable, but we nevertheless need them. They’re a device that we rely on in our quest for the true

‘Galileo called mathematics the language of the book of nature. And we are trapped inside that book. We are words in that language. So it is hard to read and absorb and appreciate what we are inside, what we are familiar with. Just as Marta said, there are patterns everywhere.’