22 Quotes by Mariana van Zeller

You'd be surprised how many doors flattery can open.

Breaking Borders' is about, more than anything, communication and conversation. The best lesson I've learned from doing this show is that when there is a breakdown in communication, conflict starts.

It's part of my DNA as a Portuguese. Like many of my ancestors, there's that need to discover the world - exploration is in my blood.

No one is going to tell me that I can't do something because I'm a woman, and I take that as a personal challenge.

I'm a shopaholic when I travel. I have a large collection of artifacts from all over the world at my house, some of which I keep in drawers until I find a place to display them.

There's whole television stations, magazines, organizations devoted to analyzing every up-and-down twist and turn, IPO, everything that happens in the formal economy. And yet the informal economy, these black and gray markets, actually make up for almost half of the global economy. And there's so little information that we have about them.

After spending over 15 years reporting in these worlds and getting to meet these traffickers, drug dealers, and other people that are really stereotyped in our society, I've come to realize the uncomfortable truth that most are not very different from us.

My husband is a journalist as well, and while we love beaches, we can't sit for that long. If we go to a beach destination, there needs to be something else we can do there as well. I need to be around interesting and different people and cultures.

I watched the Portuguese TV anchors talking about what was happening all over the world and I just thought they were so knowledgeable and the most interesting and incredible people in the world.