Home
Authors
Tags
App
Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App
" 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
Related Quotes:
" 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 been lucky enough to stand on both poles, but the place that seemed the remotest to me was Butugychag, a former gulag in Siberia. It is completely cut off from the rest of the world. "
Michael Palin
World
Stand
Place
" 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
" 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. "
Michael Palin
Ego
Nothing
Think
" I am not a great cook, I am not a great artist, but I love art, and I love food, so I am the perfect traveller. "
Michael Palin
Food
Art
Great
" There is barely a country in the world where you will be completely safe. "
Michael Palin
Will
Country
Safe
" I want people to know there is more to Somalia than looting and piracy. "
Michael Palin
More
Want
Than
" I saw novelists as being admirable people and I thought... I thought... maybe, one day, I could be one of them. "
Michael Palin
Day
People
Thought
" Something about John Cleese was always very unsettled, I felt. There was always something else he wanted to do. He seemed constantly driven by this sense that there was a nirvana somewhere; some unique place where mind, body and soul would be utterly satisfied. "
Michael Palin
Soul
Mind
Body
" 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. "
Michael Palin
Motivation
Myself
Think
" 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 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
" One of the most important days of my life was when I learned to ride a bicycle. "
Michael Palin
Bicycle
Life
Important
" 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
" 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 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 always wanted to be an explorer, but - it seemed I was doomed to be nothing more than a very silly person. "
Michael Palin
Person
Always
Nothing
" 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
" 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'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
" 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
" Hollywood was possible for a while! Why didn't I go along with it? Well, the other things that were pulling me back were more important. Being at home, being in the same marriage, these things enabled me to go off and travel in the first place. "
Michael Palin
Travel
Home
Marriage
" 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. "
Michael Palin
People
Over
Me
" 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
" 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
" Please don't ask which I enjoy more - acting or hosting - because I love them equally. "
Michael Palin
Love
Acting
More
" 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 say the most stupid things on the spur of the moment that they then have to retract. "
Michael Palin
Moment
People Say
People
" 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
World
People
Diversity