A biography for Michael Portillohasn’t been written yet.
“I enjoyed dressing in Indian clothes. I loved those long, single-piece garments that come down to the knees and the white pyjamas you wear underneath.”
“My favourite British line is the West Highland line. It was built across moorland where no one had succeeded in building a road. So everything in that area is there because of the railway line.”
“If a prince marries a foreign princess, one to the manner born, he is being snobbish and old-fashioned. If he chooses a Diana or a Fergie, glamorous outsiders, they may never adapt to the restrictions of being Royal, with calamitous results.”
“I can never thoroughly appreciate meals on ships because, away from land, I feel my autonomy is restricted.”
“Again and again, people get more conservative as they get older.”
“Non-fictionalised accounts of horrific accidents, bereavement, and the outrages of officialdom tend to move us deeply.”
“There's only one person who knows me - and that's me.”
“Freedom matters.”
“I have liked trains since I was a boy, although I was never a train-spotter.”
“Some people are born to trains, and some have trains thrust upon them. Fortunately, I can be included in this latter category.”
“The truth is a good thing.”
“People are obviously very interested in travel, including travel in Britain.”
“Three letters send a chill down the spine of the enemy: SAS. Those letters spell out one clear message. Don't mess with Britain!”
“It's a dilemma for every modern parent - how to keep children safe on social media without monitoring their every post.”
“Of all the places I've visited in my life, Egypt has been the most fascinating. I've explored almost the whole country: Cairo and the Pyramids, Alexandria, the temples of Luxor and Karnak, the Valleys of the Kings and the Queens and the Nobles.”
“I was brought up in a house where I was so aware of a life that had been broken by politics and conflict.”
“What's extraordinary about Cobra Mist, and so much of what went on at Orford, was that the public were completely oblivious to it.”
“I don't think I've got a thick skin, but I've not felt particularly humiliated by the things which people think I would have felt humiliated by, such as losing my seat in 1997 and not being elected leader in 2001. In the second case, I felt relieved.”
“As a presenter, you have to speak with artificial energy and enthusiasm.”
“America, to me, is this enormous contrast between the heady idealism of founding fathers such as Thomas Jefferson, who said, 'All men are created equal,' and the reality that he was himself a slave owner.”