I also had a tremendous passion for art and read a lot.

I carry a notebook full of sketches of pictures I want to take - they are really scruffy sketches, but at least I am going out there with a clear objective.

All I really wanted to do was wildlife photography.

My first serious project was photographing badgers - very, very difficult as they are shy and nocturnal.

So about twenty years ago I gave up on painting - and got into terrible debt after buying a load of camera gear!

A large wildlife book, start to finish, could take one to two years, but then I would expect to get several good (nature) magazine features off the back of this, plus of course a lot of stock.

Close encounters are bad. Bad for the animal, as it causes stress, and bad for me for exactly the same reason.

In The States I would have no edge, no advantage at all.

The Kalahari is brilliant - and easy to visit.

Photography started as a means of getting reference material for my paintings of nature subjects.

For the first few years we lived in a tiny rented cottage at the bottom of a friend's garden. We often joked that there was plenty of film in the fridge, but not too much food!

Our world is structured in such a way that you will be ignorant and unaware of the fact that your life is disappearing gradually and that you are left only with very little life and time.

The very fact that we now design and manufacture robot companions for the elderly marks a turning point. We ask technology to perform what used to be "love's labor": taking care of each other.

The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.

I wanted to be a journalist for a long time.

The art of genius is knowing how far out is too far.

But you didn't need me, did you? You'd already got yourself to safety." "Sometimes, I sleep better knowing you . . . and Niall . . ." She faltered. "Love you from a safe distance," he finished. "Yes.

There is only one evil, one crime, one sin: lack of heart.

I think as far as the music industry is concerned, it's kind of been the wild, wild West in a way with the Internet, which is not necessarily a bad thing to me.

Just because I was 30 doesn't mean I was grown. God, I was such an idiot. I was an absolute idiot at 30. And I grew up.

She hasn't run faster than herself before