Emily Maitlis

“I think increasingly I really come to appreciate the people, the politicians, the interviewees, of any stripe and size who are able to answer a question. It seems such a small, gentle thing to demand in 2019 but it has actually become the biggest ask that we can make.”

“I was covering the Manchester attack and was asked to stay another day and do the programme from there. But I had promised my little boy I would be at his sports day, and I had this really sharp sense that I needed to be there.”

“The first time I went to the cinema was with my father. He was a huge fan of Peter Ustinov, so we went to see 'Death on the Nile' at the Hampstead Ionic.”

“I have worked out I can quite happily jog the distance to work as long as I hail a cab first and leave my high heels on the back seat.”

“There are those moments when you know that you are up against a tricky customer who is not being forthright with the truth, and there is no way you're going to let them off the hook.”

“The stuff we have been told off record tends to be the stuff that is true and the stuff we are told on record on camera tends to be the stuff that is not so true.”

“What appears on the screen is what people see. Everything else is just interpretation.”

“The only routine I have is going for a run and a swim with the dog in the morning, between 8am and 9am - that is my head-clearing space. I am religious about holding on to that time: whatever happens, I don't want to know about it until after that.”

“I actually think in a funny way, I feel better at TV now. As I get older, I know what I think and I know what works and I enjoy it more.”

“Is television a lookist industry? Of course it is.”

“I have heard somewhere an argument that if the Industrial Revolution - economic development - had started in Africa rather than Europe, then sun and wave technology would now be at the forefront, not the old fossil fuels.”

“So often people read conspiracy into a thing when it's really a confluence of cock-ups and the wrong button being pressed at the wrong time, or the guest you wanted gets into the wrong taxi and doesn't show up.”

“I was a terrible reporter. The only advantage was I made all my mistakes in a place and at a time where I didn't know anyone, but I literally made every mistake in the book.”

“I hope somewhere to break down what seems to be a kind of robotic communication between those in power and those who are understanding power.”

“I am always impressed by interviewers who can do the whole thing without notes. I can't. I need reminders on my knee. Dates, first names, quotes in bold text.”

“It's arguing, in a very good and positive way. It's sort of sitting down and pulling an argument apart. I think that's a very oddly Jewish thing. And it's the chaos of family and a slight sort of cosy messiness of it all.”

“I'd like to get up and instantly have perfectly blow-dried hair.”

“To switch off, I will take a sleeping pill if I have to. I also found myself realigning things.”

“I moved from current affairs to daily news over the Asia crisis of 1998 - mainly because the news agenda demanded I become economically literate.”

“I'm not sure I buy the argument that the public is more mistrustful - the debate will always garner that kind of traction because anything the BBC does is always in the spotlight.”