I will die, but not retire.

Fame changes everything. When you're well-known, you're expected to be different. Some people assume you must have a yacht and four homes. Or that you're famous because you are 'A Decent Man'.

I've always been blessed, or cursed, some might say, with an insatiable curiosity, a desire to find something out about a people and a place. That's where it all begins.

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.

Despite having seen a fair amount of the world, I still love travelling - I just have an insatiable curiosity and like looking out of a window.

'The Truth' is not meant to preach or point any fingers. It's meant to show that perhaps we should all avoid taking the moral high ground unless we have thought about things a bit more.

I do have high standards. I look at everything I have done and think, 'Why wasn't that better?' Part of my motivation is from crippling self-doubt - I have got to prove myself wrong.

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.

I am not a great cook, I am not a great artist, but I love art, and I love food, so I am the perfect traveller.

You can't get a suit of armour and a rubber chicken just like that. You have to plan ahead.

No adolescent ever wants to be understood, which is why they complain about being misunderstood all the time.

The short answer to that is 'no.' The long answer is 'fuck no.

You are who you are when nobody's watching.

The sort of twee person who thinks swearing is in any way a sign of a lack of education or a lack of verbal interest is just a fucking lunatic.

Self-consciousness, that's what it is. Always my abiding vice. I keep seeing myself. Me watching myself watching others watch me. How do you lose that? What's the trick?

Sometimes there just isn't enough vomit in the world.

People who can change and change again are so much more reliable and happier than those who can’t

How can one not be fond of something that the Daily Mail despises?

A real education takes place, not in the lecture hall or library, but in the rooms of friends, with earnest frolic and happy disputation.

Old professors never die, they just lose their faculties.

I'm fat because I'm greedy, and if my mind is fat it's because I'm curious.

Wine can be a better teacher than ink, and banter is often better than books

Better sexy and racy Than sexist and racist

Seriousness is no more a guarantee of truth, insight, authenticity or probity, than humour is a guarantee of superficiality and stupidity.