Richard Bacon

“Most of the work I do is quite flippant and shallow, but my interest is really in serious news.”

“There are two ways to run a radio station; one is to really focus on making your offering as dynamic, creative and exciting as possible, and the other is to try and weaken the opposition.”

“There is something about the alchemy of a keyboard and a public platform that taps into a side of human nature that you rarely, if ever, encounter in real-life conversation.”

“I've always been bad at learning from mistakes, I've been through periods where it's been dangerous and I've gone missing for a night.”

“The friends that you make in your thirties, the path your career takes, whether or not you decide to have children - many of these big decisions that set the course for the rest of your life tend to be taken when you're in your thirties.”

“About twice a week I think I'm having the best day of my life.”

“It's time to cancel Halloween candy and improve the health of our children.”

“I love it on '5 Live' when we do a phone-in about the licence fee, we put on a load of calls slagging off the BBC.”

“When I was a kid I wanted to be an MP. Politics always fascinated me. I was terribly troubled by things such as homelessness and the plight of the elderly, and I'd think: 'What can you do about this?'”

“I have got a short attention-span and a lot of energy.”

“Getting straightforward answers to simple questions from Internet trolls is all but impossible.”

“There's a degree to which leaving an afternoon show to go to America to present telly is borderline delusional.”

“I guess I'm driven by a sense of adventure in my life and I don't want to find myself stuck in the same place doing the same thing forever.”

“One thing the doctor told me is that with ADHD, you get this thing called hyperfocus. People think of it as being a scattered focus, and it is partly that, but when you find something you like - in my case, you hit on an idea you like - everything almost zones out.”

“I'm always uncomfortable describing being sacked from 'Blue Peter' as beneficial because it looks like you're glorying in it, which I don't. It's always something I'll regret.”

“I always liked the idea of radio and politics, so if I hadn't made it in radio then it's politics. I'm quite glad that I didn't, though, because it's generally large and unrewarding work.”

“If you're caught up in a massive scandal there are probably tens of thousands of tweets about you.”

“Cancel culture is about rushing to judgment. I'd love us all to slow down, go, 'Stop, let's think about this. Does this person really deserve never to have a career?'”

“People didn't see me as a traditional kids' TV presenter, for very obvious reasons.”

“If I am excited or happy about something I am more likely to go too far.”