You see it in schools all over... the concept that 'I'll be somewhat less than my best in order to make those around me feel more comfortable' is alive and well... I'm very keen that they understand that if they make themselves a little less than they can be, it is a one-way street to mediocrity.

Sport...teaches life's lessons. But there's no substitute, in my book, for education, because that gives you choice.

I can do something about people who need me, who have been injured. So the biggest thing about being a doctor is my education and training means I can help people to reduce their suffering and that's what being a doctor is, to reduce suffering and to try to improve the life of people who have been injured.

Mothers are generally starvers or feeders

I used to be squeamish a long time ago and I guess, secretly squeamish, no... but I have a huge respect for the human body and what we do and so I think it's a massive privilage for people to let you operate on them. And I used to be very "OOOH GOSH! THIS IS BAD!" but to see people bleeding and suffering is bad and I will never get over that, but being able to do something about it, means that you're no longer squeamish.

I think plans failing is a really interesting question. I've been on a long journey. I'm 54 now and that's seriously old. I hope I still have heaps of years to go. Every day there's new success and some failures. But believe you me you can always get better - but things don't always go how you'd expect all the time. What you have to do is pick yourself up and keep going. That's part of life.

Being able to influence the outcome, being able to do something about it, to be able to stop the bleeding. You're not being useful if you're just standing there going "Oh, that's awful!" You're only useful if you actually do something about it and I think that goes for everything. If you actually do something about what's in front of you, then you are actually contributing and you haven't got time to be self-centred or sorry for yourself. You should be doing something about the person you really should feel sorry for.