Quotes from Michael Palin

We may not have a 1984 like George Orwell's, but if the Tories have their way we will be a very carefully controlled society indeed. All very sad, especially as Labour and the left are muddleheaded and ideologically dogmatic.

Unfortunately the interview she had lined up with a homeless girl cannot now be done, as the girl killed herself yesterday. She was the third suicide in a week at this hostel. Apparently when one goes, there is often a 'domino' effect.

I find that her hearing is quite a lot worse and that she has suffered a loss of confidence in herself, which it will be very hard to replace.

Mostly very ordinary, but I do buy an original Ken Livingstone watercolour of Thatcher in a coffin with a Struwwelpeter-like Heseltine looming over her. Painted the day she resigned! Outbid someone at £110.00.

The bitterness of Poor Quality remains long after the sweetness of Low Price is Forgotten. From Hemingway Adventure by Michael Palin.

Die Erebus war nicht zufällig nach dem Gott der Unterwelt benannt, und für die Männer an Bord muss es sich angefühlt haben, als wären sie dort angekommen

Christopher said to himself that only those who are capable of silliness can be called truly intelligent.

I mumble something, Terry J bravely launches into a school reminiscence. TG, with consummate timing, kicks over the urn with Graham's ashes in. From then on, we're invincible.

But I'm a nostalgic with a fascination for the future.

George Martin makes a paternal appearance. (I don't have the cheek to ask him if he'd seen himself described in a magazine article recently as 'the Michael Palin of rock'!) He says the studio conversion cost about £15 million. 'Half the money was Japanese, so I feel I'd done my bit to pay them back for the Burma Railway,' he says, elegantly.

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.

A thought struck me as I left – the bags in which you are given food at McDonald's are almost identical in texture, shape and size with the vomit bags tucked in the seat pockets of aircraft.

I've never had a particular skill. I can't cook, dance, play an instrument, speak a foreign language. This used to worry me. I'd think, when I'm grown up, at 18, then I made it 21, it will be clear what role I should have in life. It never happened. I never signed on the dotted line as the sort of adult my father wanted.

Please don't ask which I enjoy more - acting or hosting - because I love them equally.

I think some of the best modern writing comes now from travellers.

Travelling, and being paid for it, is just great.

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 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.

The human race should just slow down and think about what it is doing.

There is nothing better than playing a scene with John Cleese or Maggie Smith. It's electric. But I don't think I'm the sort of person who needs to have an outer ego in order to produce something. I realised that through the travel programmes.

I don't see why it should be remarkable that you can acquire a reputation for fairness and decency. Those are qualities shared by so many people. And the great majority of people I meet are decent people, just trying to navigate their way through the world without causing too much trouble.

'The Truth' is not meant to preach or point any fingers. It's meant to show that perhaps we should all avoid taking the moral high ground unless we have thought about things a bit more.

I want people to know there is more to Somalia than looting and piracy.

If you had a successful TV show, people wanted to see you live. Promoters had had practice with pop groups, and 'Python' achieved a similar status. We also had lots of rock star fans - George Harrison, Pink Floyd, Robert Plant. Promoters saw that and liked it.