What gets me excited is the original principle.

And I like asking questions, to keep learning; people with big egos might not want to look unsure.

A lot of country pubs will receive Michelin stars.

It was not easy with a newborn, asking your wife to give up the family home and your security.

If it doesn't taste good it doesn't go on the menu.

I am not the world's most confident person.

But most is all to do with work. There are aspects of work that are enjoyable, that you could call a hobby.

Being branded number one restaurant in the world is actually very humbling.

You know how sad your life is when you know the release date of DVDs.

No, when I worked as an accountant I was falling asleep waiting for 5 o'clock.

What gets me excited is the original principle.

I've got around 400 cookbooks.

Television forces people to be larger than life. I would be too shy.

It was quite a challenge to make people eat crab ice cream.

I was determined that if I failed it wouldn't be due to lack of effort.

We sunk everything into it. It came close to going under several times.

I would try doing a dish 30 different ways.

We were saving, saving, saving then going to France and blowing the money eating. She was a nurse and had never experienced fine dining but she loved it, too. Our mates thought it absurd.

I have this desire to keep improving, so I find fault.

You need to do the work to bring the money in, but not compromise standards.

Now my complaint is there are only 18 hours to work in a day.

As we get older, we tend to become more risk averse because we tend to find reasons why things won't work. When you are a kid, you think everything is possible, and I think with creativity it is so important to keep that naivety.

I was born in the '60s and grew up in the '70s - not exactly the best decade for food in British history. It was horrendous. It was a time when, as a nation, we excelled in art and music and acting and photography and fashion - all creative skills... all apart from cooking.

I'm not scared of anything in particular, but I am motivated by a fear of failure as opposed to a need to succeed.

There are so many issues in our oceans - like the near extinction of blue fin tuna - that should be taken more seriously worldwide.

To me, food is as much about the moment, the occasion, the location and the company as it is about the taste.

You think about some of the most memorable meals you've ever had; the food will be good but it will often be about locating a mental memory and taste is inexorably linked to all the other senses and memory, so ultimately it is all about taste.

It's a fair guess that at the rate we're destroying habitat, especially but not exclusively in the tropics, we're pushing to extinction about one species every hour. That doesn't count the species whose populations are being reduced so greatly that diversity within the population is essentially gone.

The middle class were invented to give the poor hope; the poor, to make the rich feel special; the rich, to humble the middle class.

It's about sharing. You just give what you have to give wherever you go, and you let God handle the rest.

I sort of try to read the books when they come out impartially and not make up my mind, but the fact is when I was reading the sixth, 'Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince', there were bits in there where I was going, 'God, I would love to do that because it's so good'.

I've been a stalwart for national security.

At our peak, no one knew how to value Digg.

The world would be a better place if everyone learned to dance.

I write just knowing that I enjoy writing. But if I have to write, it seems like nothing comes. But when I go there for my own pleasure, the Lord might just give me loads of stuff all at once.

My style is all to myself.

Singing as a full-time job was not something I had given a lot of thought to and I had no clear notion of the money to be made in it.

You have two hemispheres in your brain - a left and a right side. The left side controls the right side of your body and right controls the left half. It's a fact. Therefore, left-handers are the only people in their right minds.

I'm old enough to remember Richard Nixon. They called it the imperial presidency when he was refusing to spend money that Congress had appropriated.

It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. It is in fact true. Its called living.

It's funny: as a director, there are movies you make because you're passionate about getting your vision across, and you know that you're vision is different than anybody else. In those cases, you take the plunge, and it works, or it doesn't. You make the stylistic choices based on how you feel about the material.

Who picks your clothes - Stevie Wonder?

Well, I believe that life is very complicated. And in a way, the only way you can show life in a truthful way is to show how complicated it is as an individual, but also your relation between a complicated life and the complications you have inside you.

If I have to work hard or think hard or just copy somebody else that's doing it better - whatever it takes, I'm going to find that solution. That's the drive that keeps me going.

I'd been going up for things, but I hadn't got anything, and then 'Anne Frank' came out, and there was a sudden flurry. I got a call saying they wanted to see me at the Globe, which was incredible because I'd been coming here since I was 12.

Were all human and part of being human is showing respect and support for others life choices.

Seek always for the answer within. Be not influenced by those around you, by their thoughts or their words.

I saw Cate Blanchett in 'Big and Small,' and it was mind-blowing. The fact that she can do theatre and is also a huge movie star is really exciting.

For victory in life, we've got to keep focused on the goal, and the goal is Heaven.