As a youngster I was a great dreamer, reading many books of adventure and walking lonely miles with my head in the clouds.

I think the whole attitude towards climbing Mount Everest has become rather horrifying. The people just want to get to the top. They don't give a damn for anybody else who may be in distress and it doesn't impress me at all that they leave someone lying under a rock to die.

Motivation is the single most important factor in any sort of success.

I am a lucky man. I have had a dream and it has come true, and that is not a thing that happens often to men.

I've often thought about that and the only suitable member to join me on that climb [to Everest] was George Lowe: he was strong, a good man on a mountain, with a great sense of humour, and I liked that. I think George and I could've done that together ... I've probably never told George that.

I think it all comes down to motivation. If you really want to do something, you will work hard for it.

In those days we were punished very frequently and I felt that it was often unjust, and so I would resist the desire to agree with many, many things. So I used to get beaten quite frequently and I more or less accepted it as part of life.