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Please Don't Ask Which I Enjoy More - Acting Or Hosting - Because I Love Them Equally.

-Michael Palin

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Please Don't Ask Which

Michael Palin

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Please Don't Ask Which I Enjoy More - Acting Or Hosting - Because I Love Them Equally.

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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.

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I Enjoy Writing, I Enjoy My House, My Family And, More Than Anything I Enjoy The Feeling Of Seeing Each Day Used To The Full To Actually Produce Something. The End.

I Cut Down Trees, I Skip And Jump, I Like To Press Wild Flowers. I Put On Women's Clothing And Hang Around In Bars.

It's Not An Easy Option. The Essence Of Travel Is Letting Go Of Habit And Prejudice And Relishing The Unfamiliar. Food You've Never Eaten Before, A Language You've Never Spoken Before, Religion That Mystifies, Customs That Confuse, Politics That Perplex, All Question Everyday Assumptions About How You Live Your Life.

I Always Wanted To Be An Explorer, But - It Seemed I Was Doomed To Be Nothing More Than A Very Silly Person.

In The Absence Of Fear There Is Little Faith.

Contrary To What The Politicians And Religious Leaders Would Like Us To Believe, The World Won't Be Made Safer By Creating Barriers Between People.

I Remember Queuing Around The Block In Sheffield When I Was Growing Up. At That Time, Going To The Cinema Was Really Something Special - There Was Something About The Style Of The Real Thing That Is Immeasurable Nicer Than Multiplexes.

It Was A Strange Feeling Going Into A Church I Did Not Know For A Service That I Did Not Really Believe In, But Once Inside I Couldn't Help A Feeling Of Warmth And Security. Outside There Were Wars And Road Accidents And Murders, Striptease Clubs And Battered Babies And Frayed Tempers And Unhappy Marriages And People Contemplating Suicide And Bad Jokes, But Once In St. Martin's There Was Peace. Surely People Go To Church Not To Involve Themselves In The World's Problems But To Escape From Them.

People Are Still Crazy About Python After Twenty-five Years, Which I Find Hard To Believe.

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One Of The Difficult Things Of So Much Travelling Is To Say Goodbye.

The Human Race Should Just Slow Down And Think About What It Is Doing.

[there] Are People Who Make A Complete And Utter Mockery Of 'democracy' And 'equality' - They're The Casualties Of The Primitive Rules Of Competition Which Run Our Society, And The Welfare State Just Keeps Them Alive. That's All.

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As I Work In The Afternoon On Committing To Paper Some Of My Morning's Thoughts, I Find Myself Just About To Close On The Knotty Question Of Whether Or Not I Believe In God. In Fact I Am About To Type, 'i Do Not Believe In God', When The Sky Goes Black As Ink, There Is A Thunderclap And A Huge Crash Of Thunder And A Downpour Of Epic Proportions. I Never Do Complete The Sentence.

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My Parents Have Been Married Forty-two Years. I Wonder How Many Of Those Were Happy.

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From My Travels Around The World I Have Seen How Much Damage And Pollution Is Done By The Careless Disposal Of Waste. It Is Also Evident That We In The West Produce Far More And Throw Away Far More Than The Developing World, Almost Without Thinking

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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.

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.

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.

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I Am Certainly More Interested In Interviewing Than Being Interviewed. Sometimes You Find Yourself Attacked From The Start.

Finding Yourself

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Please Don't Ask Which I Enjoy More - Acting Or Hosting - Because I Love Them Equally.

My Marriage Has Worked Because I Am Not Around Much.

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.

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First Shalt Thou Take Out The Holy Pin. Then Shalt Thou Count To Three, No More-no Less. Three Shall Be The Number Thou Shalt Count, And The Number Of The Counting Shall Be Three. Four Shalt Thou Not Count, Neither Count Thou Two, Excepting That Thou Then Proceed To Three. Five Is Right Out. Once The Number Three, Being The Third Number, Be Reached, Then Lobbest Thou Thy Holy Hand Grenade Of Antioch Towards Thy Foe, Who, Being Naughty In My Sight, Shall Snuff It.

When I'm Travelling, I Always Take My Little Notebook And Scribble Things Down As I Watch Them; I'm Very Much Geared To Everything That's Happening. Whereas, The Diary I Keep Is Just About A Record Of A Day I've Spent. When I'm Filming, I'm Looking Quite Intensely At Everything I See And Trying To Get My Own Eye On What We're Going Through.

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'nice' Means Nothing. Is It Someone Who Doesn't Swear And Shout? I Swear And Shout. 'nice' Sounds Ineffectual.

I Want People To Know There Is More To Somalia Than Looting And Piracy.

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There Is Barely A Country In The World Where You Will Be Completely Safe.

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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.

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