We have to create more and more vegetarians, and help people to understand that it is not only the suffering of the animals (which is what made me vegetarian) but also the incredible harm to the environment, the tremendous amount of greenhouse gas created by the whole vast machinery of intensive animal farming.

I was the sort of person who didn't care about hairdressing and clothes and parties and boyfriends. I really wanted to be in the wild.

Every individual matters and has a role to play in this life on Earth.

It was because the chimps are so eye-catching, so like us and teach us so much that my work was recognised worldwide.

Of course animals have a personality and emotions.

One cannot watch chimpanzee infants for long without realizing that they have the same emotional need for affection and reassurance as human children.

The chimpanzees taught me a lot about nonverbal communication. The big difference between them and us is that they don't have spoken language. Everything else is almost the same: Kissing, embracing, swaggering, shaking the fist.