Children start off reading in books about lions and giraffes and so on, but they also-if theyre lucky enough and have reasonable privileges of any human being-are able to go into a garden and turn over stone and see a worm and see a slug and see an ant.

All the modern devices we have enable us to investigate things and have enabled us to do better.

The most extraordinary thing about trying to piece together the missing links in the evolutionary story is that when you do find a missing link and put it in the story, you suddenly need all these other missing links to connect to the new discovery. The gaps and questions actually increase - it's extraordinary.

I had a huge advantage when I started 50 years ago - my job was secure. I didn't have to promote myself. These days there's far more pressure to make a mark, so the temptation is to make adventure television or personality shows. I hope the more didactic approach won't be lost.

There is no question that climate change is happening; the only arguable point is what part humans are playing in it.

No, not a feminist. I'm a humanist. I'm neither one side nor the other.

I'm swanning round the world looking at the most fabulously interesting things. Such good fortune.