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" I'm not good at confrontation. I know my strengths. I like company. And I am not a great arguer... I do find it much easier talking to people I like about things we both like. "
Michael Palin
Know
People
Talking
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" There is nothing better than playing a scene with John Cleese or Maggie Smith. It's electric. But I don't think I'm the sort of person who needs to have an outer ego in order to produce something. I realised that through the travel programmes. "
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" I do have high standards. I look at everything I have done and think, 'Why wasn't that better?' Part of my motivation is from crippling self-doubt - I have got to prove myself wrong. "
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" Armageddon is not around the corner. This is only what the people of violence want us to believe. The complexity and diversity of the world is the hope for the future. "
Michael Palin
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" I've always been blessed, or cursed, some might say, with an insatiable curiosity, a desire to find something out about a people and a place. That's where it all begins. "
Michael Palin
Curiosity
Blessed
Say
" People are still crazy about Python after twenty-five years, which I find hard to believe. "
Michael Palin
Hard
People
Crazy
" I've never particularly liked travelling with large groups or being told where to go by somebody else. I prefer to find out for myself. "
Michael Palin
Somebody
Out
Find
" You don't ask people about the immigration policies of the U.K. or their country's agricultural policy. Instead, you talk to them about the meal they're eating or their family, and from that you get the sense of another human being, someone we can all relate to. "
Michael Palin
Immigration
People
You
" I wanted to be an explorer, but gradually found the world had been explored and that there was nowhere left, really. Once they climbed Everest in 1953, when I was 10 years old, I thought, 'Well, that's pretty much it now.' But the idea of travelling and exploring and adventure was very strong. "
Michael Palin
Adventure
Now
Strong
" Despite having seen a fair amount of the world, I still love travelling - I just have an insatiable curiosity and like looking out of a window. "
Michael Palin
Window
Curiosity
Looking
" I think some of the best modern writing comes now from travellers. "
Michael Palin
Modern
Now
Some
" 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. "
Michael Palin
Trying
Know
Someone
" There are people who travel because they want to push themselves to physical limits, people who walk across deserts or cycle across the Antarctic - like Ranulph Fiennes, who just does it because it's there. And then there are people like me, who are just genuinely curious about the world. "
Michael Palin
People
World
Walk
" Fame changes everything. When you're well-known, you're expected to be different. Some people assume you must have a yacht and four homes. Or that you're famous because you are 'A Decent Man'. "
Michael Palin
People
Be Different
Famous
" If you had a successful TV show, people wanted to see you live. Promoters had had practice with pop groups, and 'Python' achieved a similar status. We also had lots of rock star fans - George Harrison, Pink Floyd, Robert Plant. Promoters saw that and liked it. "
Michael Palin
Rock
Practice
Pink
" I want people to know there is more to Somalia than looting and piracy. "
Michael Palin
More
Want
Than
" I don't seek discomfort. But, very often, you realise that what you fear is actually quite ephemeral; something's different, something's unfamiliar; therefore, it must be worse. "
Michael Palin
Discomfort
Different
You
" I know that we shall meet problems along the way, but I'd far rather see for myself what's going on in the world outside, than rely on newspapers, television, politicians and religious leaders to tell me what I should be thinking. "
Michael Palin
World
Me
Myself
" I don't see why it should be remarkable that you can acquire a reputation for fairness and decency. Those are qualities shared by so many people. And the great majority of people I meet are decent people, just trying to navigate their way through the world without causing too much trouble. "
Michael Palin
World
Great
Reputation
" People look for patterns in everything. It's what keeps us sane, I suppose. I struggle to see any patterns in my life. I think I can understand depression a bit because of my sister. My own feelings of... I'm aware that, if you feel down, it can be strangely unrelated to circumstances around you. That's just the way life is. "
Michael Palin
Look
Sister
Struggle
" I will die, but not retire. "
Michael Palin
Die
Retire
Will
" I am restless. I don't mind leaving this comfortable, static life. I could live a year on my own in a remote village. "
Michael Palin
Village
Mind
Leaving
" 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. "
Michael Palin
Pursue
Blessed
Me
" 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. "
Michael Palin
Growing Up
Life
You
" I've never had a particular skill. I can't cook, dance, play an instrument, speak a foreign language. This used to worry me. I'd think, when I'm grown up, at 18, then I made it 21, it will be clear what role I should have in life. It never happened. I never signed on the dotted line as the sort of adult my father wanted. "
Michael Palin
Speak
Dance
Life
" 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. "
Michael Palin
Result
Lucky
Group
" I love reading other people's diaries, especially someone like Virginia Woolf's - such a formidable woman that it's a revelation when she shows you a more vulnerable side of herself. "
Michael Palin
You
Love
Woman
" Travelling, and being paid for it, is just great. "
Michael Palin
Paid
Just
Being
" I would love to go to Iran. The island of Madagascar, everyone says is pretty exotic, or the wonderful Namibian desert. "
Michael Palin
Love
Iran
Go
" I think you learn a lot about a country from its art. To me, it's part of the drama of life. It teaches you that there are places, moments and incidents in other cultures that genuinely have a life of their own. "
Michael Palin
Think
You
Art
" I am certainly more interested in interviewing than being interviewed. Sometimes you find yourself attacked from the start. "
Michael Palin
You
Start
Sometimes