Development of mathematics resembles a fast revolution of a wheel: sprinkles of water are flying in all directions. Fashion — it is the stream that leaves the main trajectory in the tangential direction. These streams of epigone works attract most attention, and they constitute the main mass, but they inevitably disappear after a while because they parted with the wheel. To remain on the wheel, one must apply the effort in the direction perpendicular to the main stream.

V I Arnold, translated from “Arnold in His Own words,” interview with the mathematician originally published in Kvant Magazine, 1990, and republished in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 2012.