Once the travel bug bites, there is no known antidote.

I'm aware that, if you feel down, it can be strangely unrelated to circumstances around you. That's just the way life is.

I wanted to be an explorer, but gradually found the world had been explored and that there was nowhere left, really. Once they climbed Everest in 1953, when I was 10 years old, I thought, 'Well, that's pretty much it now.' But the idea of travelling and exploring and adventure was very strong.

I've never particularly liked travelling with large groups or being told where to go by somebody else. I prefer to find out for myself.

I am not a great cook, I am not a great artist, but I love art, and I love food, so I am the perfect traveller.

Somewhere, a long way away, people are doing sensible things like mowing lawns and digging gardens.

As I work in the afternoon on committing to paper some of my morning's thoughts, I find myself just about to close on the knotty question of whether or not I believe in God. In fact I am about to type, 'I do not believe in God', when the sky goes black as ink, there is a thunderclap and a huge crash of thunder and a downpour of epic proportions. I never do complete the sentence.