I also like flyfishing - maybe I would have figured a way to make a living out of that?

I carry a notebook full of sketches of pictures I want to take - they are really scruffy sketches, but at least I am going out there with a clear objective.

All I really wanted to do was wildlife photography.

My first serious project was photographing badgers - very, very difficult as they are shy and nocturnal.

So about twenty years ago I gave up on painting - and got into terrible debt after buying a load of camera gear!

A large wildlife book, start to finish, could take one to two years, but then I would expect to get several good (nature) magazine features off the back of this, plus of course a lot of stock.

Close encounters are bad. Bad for the animal, as it causes stress, and bad for me for exactly the same reason.

In The States I would have no edge, no advantage at all.

The Kalahari is brilliant - and easy to visit.

Photography started as a means of getting reference material for my paintings of nature subjects.

For the first few years we lived in a tiny rented cottage at the bottom of a friend's garden. We often joked that there was plenty of film in the fridge, but not too much food!

Meditation nourishes the mind.

Reading brings us unknown friends

We all have a sea inside us

You write the way you think about the world. My motto in times of trouble - and I'm speaking of life, not writing - is 'no humor too black.'

It is easy to kill individuals but you cannot kill the ideas.

My experiences taught me firsthand that when a person is not performing well, there are many possible reasons, some not of his own choosing.

Home is the best place when life begins to wobble.

We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity, and society cannot trample on the weakest and feeblest of its members without receiving the curse in its own soul.

Once you expose your private life, if you give one little bit, the floodgates are open and everyone's got a free range for you.

Know why certain foods, such as truffles, are expensive. It's not because they taste best.