The question is, are we happy to suppose that our grandchildren may never be able to see an elephant except in a picture book?

Nature isn't positive in that way. It doesn't aim itself at you. It's not being unkind to you.

To suggest that God specifically created a worm to torture small African children is blasphemy as far as I can see. The Archbishop of Canterbury doesn't believe that.

I think we're lucky to be living when we are, because things are going to get worse.

There are some four million different kinds of animals and plants in the world. Four million different solutions to the problems of staying alive.

I am an ardent recycler. I would like to think that it works. I don't know whether it does or not.

I'd like to see the giant squid. Nobody has ever seen one. I could tell you people who have spent thousands and thousands of pounds trying to see giant squid. I mean, we know they exist because we have seen dead ones. But I have never seen a living one. Nor has anybody else.