140 Quotes by Michael Palin

I've been lucky to have made a number of travel programmes with the BBC, the object being to see places off the beaten track. As a result, I've often had a guide who's been able to show me things that you wouldn't see with a tour group.

When I read profiles of myself, I sometimes think: 'I have spent my whole life struggling to understand my motivations and impulses, and I've never quite sorted them out.'

I have been unusually blessed in that I've been allowed to pursue two strands of a career that both delight me and seem to please the public.

I'd got over playing a character. People accepted who I was, and if I was incompetent and useless, they felt quite endeared to me.

People say the most stupid things on the spur of the moment that they then have to retract.

Please don't ask which I enjoy more - acting or hosting - because I love them equally.

The kids growing up is a separate strand to your life. However bad a day you've had, that's the most important thing, and you have to remember that.

I'm not your expert on Africa or animals or whatever. I'm not a travel writer or maker of documentaries. I was someone who doesn't know very much, trying to communicate.

So many people had been asking me to write an autobiography, or threatening to write my biography without any input from me, that I thought I'd better tell my story before other people told it for me.