David Attenborough

“Getting to places like Bangkok or Singapore was a hell of a sweat. But when you got there it was the back of beyond. It was just a series of small tin sheds.”

“I'm not a propagandist, I'm not a polemicist; my primary interest is just looking at and trying to understand how animals work.”

“There is no question that climate change is happening; the only arguable point is what part humans are playing in it.”

“There are some four million different kinds of animals and plants in the world. Four million different solutions to the problems of staying alive.”

“It is vital that there is a narrator figure whom people believe. That's why I never do commercials. If I started saying that margarine was the same as motherhood, people would think I was a liar.”

“I think we're lucky to be living when we are, because things are going to get worse.”

“I'm not in politics.”

“Being in touch with the natural world is crucial.”

“All we can hope for is that the thing is going to slowly and imperceptibly shift. All I can say is that 50 years ago there were no such thing as environmental policies.”

“We keep putting on programmes about famine in Ethiopia; that's what's happening. Too many people there. They can't support themselves - and it's not an inhuman thing to say. It's the case. Until humanity manages to sort itself out and get a coordinated view about the planet it's going to get worse and worse.”

“The most extraordinary thing about trying to piece together the missing links in the evolutionary story is that when you do find a missing link and put it in the story, you suddenly need all these other missing links to connect to the new discovery. The gaps and questions actually increase - it's extraordinary.”

“To suggest that God specifically created a worm to torture small African children is blasphemy as far as I can see. The Archbishop of Canterbury doesn't believe that.”

“Crying wolf is a real danger.”

“It's coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so. It's not just climate change; it's sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde. Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now.”

“I suffer much less than many of my colleagues. I am perfectly able to go to Australia and film within three hours of arrival.”

“You have to steer a course between not appalling people, but at the same time not misleading them.”

“Television of course actually started in Britain in 1936, and it was a monopoly, and there was only one broadcaster and it operated on a license which is not the same as a government grant.”

“I believe the Abominable Snowman may be real. I think there may be something in that.”

“Cameramen are among the most extraordinarily able and competent people I know. They have to have an insight into natural history that gives them a sixth sense of what the creature is going to do, so they can be ready to follow.”

“People must feel that the natural world is important and valuable and beautiful and wonderful and an amazement and a pleasure.”