The movie director and member of Monty Python, Terry Gilliam, is to unveil an illuminated art work in Edinburgh later this week.

Gilliam, who created the famous animations for the Monty Python programmes as well as directing films such as Time Bandits, Brazil and 12 Monkeys, is to launch his 10m high sign on Jeffrey Street in the capital.

The illuminated sign, made for the Words on the Street project for the Edinburgh City of Literature, quotes from Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote, a book that Gilliam attempted to make into a movie.

The quote reads: "I shall tear up trees with my bare teeth! I shall crush mountains with my fists! I shall go crazy - for love!"

The project also marks the 400th anniversary of Cervantes' death.

Gilliam, who will be in Edinburgh to officially launch the work later this week, chose these lines from his translation of Don Quixote in "celebration of his love for this book".

A 2002 documentary film, Lost in La Mancha, is about Gilliam's efforts to make The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, a film adaptation of the novel Don Quixote, a film which at the time starred Johnny Depp, Jean Rochefort, and Vanessa Paradis.

He is still attempting to make the movie.

The text will be attached to the Jeffrey Street railings and will be visible from North Bridge, trains coming in to Waverley from the east and Carlton Hill.

The project is funded by the City of Edinburgh Council and New Waverley developers Artisan REI and delivered in partnership with Edinburgh World Heritage’s Twelve Closes project.

Don Quixote’s connection with Edinburgh goes back to the mid-18th century, when one of the book’s first English translators, Tobias Smollett lived a couple of minutes’ walk from Jeffrey Street at St John's Pend in the Canongate.

Smollett’s translation was first published in 1755 and revised in 1761, quickly becoming one of the most popular editions of Cervantes’ work.

Jeffrey Street itself is named after Francis Jeffrey, co-founder of the Edinburgh Review.

On his Facebook page, Gilliam said: "Edinburgh, as UNESCO's City of Literature, is going to be lit up in neon with this quote from Don Quixote on February 11. I'll be there, will you?"