[Sir John M. Ball] proposed to me three alternatives: accept [the Fields Medal] and come [to a public ceremony at the International Mathematical Union’s congress in Madrid]; accept and don’t come, and we will send you the medal later; third, I don’t accept the prize. From the very beginning, I told him I have chosen the third one. It was completely irrelevant for me. Everybody understood that if the proof is correct then no other recognition is needed.