The World is full of wonders, but they become more Wonderful, not less Wonderful when Science looks at them.

Crying wolf is a real danger.

You can only get really unpopular decisions through if the electorate is convinced of the value of the environment. That's what natural history programmes should be for.

Sentimentalising is anathema, as far as I am concerned. It leads you into ethical problems about violence and killing and eating meat. The whole world becomes topsy-survy if you impose moralities that were evolved within human society on what a blowfly or what a parasite does... there are lots of emotions you can deduce from an animal's behaviour that are correct, but when you start saying it's feeling guilty or thinking or a loved one or mourning, you must be very careful of those feelings.

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

I think a major element of jetlag is psychological. Nobody ever tells me what time it is at home.

I suspect that happiness is not a state but rather a transition.