There's no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing

Whenever feasible, pick your team on character, not skill. You can teach skills; you can't teach character.

There is no bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.

People who go to the polar regions are statistically less likely to die than salesmen who drive on motorways in England.

The ultimate starting point for planning any adventure or expeditionby far and away the greatest book on earth

While I was serving, I worked as an adventure training officer, teaching soldiers how to ski, canoe and climb.

Rivalry is one of the factors pushing me. While my back was turned, the Norwegians managed to achieve the first Arctic crossing in winter. I didn't want the same to happen in the Antarctic.

As a rule, anything that is pretty you avoid when on an expedition in the polar extremes. Normally anything other than white means a hazard such as a crevasse.

I go on expeditions for the same reason an estate agent sells houses - to pay the bills.

I don't know very much but what I do know I know better than anybody, and I don't want to argue about it…My mind is not a bed to be made and re-made.

There are only two problems in my life. The political ones are insoluble and the economic ones are incomprehensible.

Learning how to transcend consciousness to a higher consciousness is a blissful journey and the ultimate essence of life.

An old man with overalls walked by

The basic experience of everyone is the experience of human limitation.

For a writer, capturing that elusive Christmas morning magic can be deeply problematic.

Literature is about telling stories.

If you don't feel that you haven't read enough, you haven't read enough.

The more you know about something, the harder it becomes. You become more and more of a perfectionist. I think it's a curse... It's a form of illness!

Great talent has always a little madness mixed up with it.