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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

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You Don't Ask People

Michael Palin

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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.

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I Got My First Lifetime Achievement Award Years Ago, And I Was Very Excited, But Then I Got A Sense Of: Well, Can One Get A Second Lifetime Award?

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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.

I Am Very Cautious Of People Who Are Absolutely Right, Especially When They Are Vehemently So.

You Can't Get A Suit Of Armour And A Rubber Chicken Just Like That. You Have To Plan Ahead.

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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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.

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.

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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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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.

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