In the absence of fear there is little faith.
I cut down trees, I skip and jump, I like to press wild flowers. I put on women’s clothing and hang around in bars.
I remember queuing around the block in Sheffield when I was growing up. At that time, going to the cinema was really something special – there was something about the style of the real thing that is immeasurable nicer than multiplexes.
There are people who travel because they want to push themselves to physical limits, people who walk across deserts or cycle across the Antarctic – like Ranulph Fiennes, who just does it because it’s there. And then there are people like me, who are just genuinely curious about the world.
If atheists are deaf to the word of God, then theists are blind to the ways of man.
From my travels around the world I have seen how much damage and pollution is done by the careless disposal of waste. It is also evident that we in the West produce far more and throw away far more than the developing world, almost without thinking.
If I am seen as successful, it’s all the more reason not to change – not to lose track of friends, not to be driven everywhere, not to go and get away from the world. That, to me, is real success: enjoying what you do, but being the same person.
My marriage has worked because I am not around much.
When in doubt, resort to animation.
I mistrust total competence. I’ve always felt life is a series of small disasters we try to get through.
Once the travel bug bites, there is no known antidote.
It’s not a model if it’s full-size. It’s a ice-breaker!
The need to eat, sleep and dry out plays havoc with your sense of wonder.
Ronnie Barker was a straightforward man who had this extraordinary ability to make the nation laugh.
One of the difficult things of so much travelling is to say goodbye.
Somewhere, a long way away, people are doing sensible things like mowing lawns and digging gardens.
Geography prepares for the world of work – geographers, with their skills of analysis are highly employable!
There is nothing better than playing a scene with John Cleese or Maggie Smith. It’s electric. But I don’t think I’m the sort of person who needs to have an outer ego in order to produce something. I realised that through the travel programmes.
I wanted to be an explorer, but gradually found the world had been explored and that there was nowhere left, really. Once they climbed Everest in 1953, when I was 10 years old, I thought, ‘Well, that’s pretty much it now.’ But the idea of travelling and exploring and adventure was very strong.
I don’t see why it should be remarkable that you can acquire a reputation for fairness and decency. Those are qualities shared by so many people. And the great majority of people I meet are decent people, just trying to navigate their way through the world without causing too much trouble.