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

When you're climbing at high altitudes, life can get pretty miserable.

I'm a very, very modest person and with limited abilities. I do have the wish to succeed in anything I undertake, and that does help out, but, in general, there are so many other people who are skilled in their field that I feel very ordinary.

I was certainly seriously emotionally affected [ when Louise Hillary and Belinda Hillary died], but we were building the hospital at the time and I decided that the only thing to do was to carry on and complete the hospital - and it was a jolly good hospital too, I might say. So I really did it by working and working on the things that Louise and I had been working on.

It's all bullshit on Everest these days.

On the summit of Everest, I had a feeling of great satisfaction to be first there.

I hate being called an 'icon.' I just don't like it. That's all there is to it.