“I think viewers quite like it when I’m suffering or eating or drinking something horrible or really up against it in some quicksand or whatever.”

Well, wolves will pretty rarely hunt. You’re vulnerable if you’re on your own or injured. But for lone wolves, get up high, show them that you’re not injured, face ’em off, be authoritarian with it, and look ’em in the eye.

The lesson is, the rewards in life don’t always go to the biggest, or the bravest, or the smartest. The rewards go to the dogged; and when your going though hell, to the person who just keeps going.

I hang out all the time with kids and young scouts and I never meet kids who don’t want adventure.

Without risk, there can be no growth.

I don’t like expeditions where it is a total lottery whether you live or die. You have to keep those sort of good luck cards for rare occasions!

To me, adventure has always been to me the connections and bounds you create with people when you’re there. And you can have that anywhere.

It’s unresolved conflict in my life that I have a lovely family and a risky job.

Unless you have shelter, fire is going to be very hard and if you have fire, but no water, you’re going to die. They’re all super important.

When you find yourself thinking about someone or something in the same old negative way, just stop yourself. Think. Check. Change. Refresh. Job done. Smile. Move on. Do this enough times and you will change. For the better; for the stronger.

I try and eat really healthy when I’m home, but I certainly don’t eat worms and snakes.

I’ve fallen down crevasses, been bitten by snakes, been knocked unconscious, had various limbs broken and once, a heavy camera came plunging down which very nearly decapitated me.

I never wanted to do TV. I just did what I was trained to do through the Special Forces, and I’ve been doing that from a very young age.

Survival is not about being fearless. It’s about making a decision, getting on and doing it, because I want to see my kids again, or whatever the reason might be.

The appeal of the wild for me is its unpredictability. You have to develop an awareness, react fast, be resourceful and come up with a plan and act on it.

There’s no magic to running far or climbing Everest. Endurance is mental strength. It’s all about heart.

Success almost always follows great attitude. The two attract each other!

Writing history is like drinking an ocean and pissing a cupful.

I used to think that drinking would help my shyness, but all it did was exaggerate all the negative qualities.

And, even yet, I dare not let it languish, Dare not indulge in memory’s rapturous pain; Once drinking deep of that divinest anguish, How could I seek the empty world again?

At parties, everyone always thinks I’m drinking, but actually I rarely drink. I live on energy drinks, basically. I love vitamin water.

[On alcohol:] Total abstinence is an impossibility and it will not do to insist on it as a general practice.

Masturbation! The amazing availability of it!

Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.

Instead of warning pregnant women not to drink,I think female alcoholics ought to be told not to fuck.