"Many people have wondered how Johnny von Neumann could think so fast and so effectively. How he could find so many original solutions, in areas where most people did not even notice the problems. I think I know a part of the answer, perhaps an important part, Johnny von Neumann enjoyed thinking. I have come to suspect that to most people, thinking is painful. Some of us are addicted to thinking. Some of us find it a necessity. Johnny enjoyed it. I even have a suspicion that he enjoyed practically nothing else. This explains a lot, because what you like, you do well. And he liked thinking, not just in mathematics. He liked thinking in the clear and complete manner of mathematicians, in every field; in mathematics, in physics, in the business world - his father was a banker - and in many other fields. He could and did talk to my 3-year-old son on his own terms, and I sometimes wondered whether his relation to the rest of us were a little bit similar. This also explains his effectiveness in connection with computing machines, because computing machines apply logical processes to fields: not only mathematics, but to others as yet untouched by the logical process. And it is very significant that this revolution, the revolution of the electronic brains, was practically initiated by Johnny von Neumann. I cannot think of Johnny now without remembering a very tragic circumstance when he was dying of cancer. His brain was affected. I visited him frequently and he was trying to do what he always tried to do. And he was trying to argue with me as he used to and it wasn't functioning anymore. And I think that he suffered from this loss more than I have seen any human to suffer in any other circumstance."