In Sierra Leone last year there was just the two of us hanging out of a helicopter and, when we were in Bosnia, I drove an armoured vehicle, thousands of miles.

But in the first Gulf war the United Kingdom was not under any threat from Iraq, and is still less so in the second one. Then there is no justification for obstructing freedom of information, particularly as nations have a right to know what their soldiers are being used for.

Hair is also a problem. I remember once, when I was reporting from Beirut at the height of the civil war, someone wrote in to the BBC complaining about my appearance.

I also read modern novels - I have just had to read 60 as I am one of the judges for the Orange Fiction Prize.

I don't sit there and speculate. I'm not that sort of person. It wastes time, actually.

If I'm in danger then it's usually my fault and it's up to me to get myself out of it. I am not in it just to get an adrenalin rush. No way!

In Sierra Leone last year there was just the two of us hanging out of a helicopter and, when we were in Bosnia, I drove an armoured vehicle, thousands of miles.

My job is to get to the heart of a story, to find out what's really going on; to get it verified and, then, to get it out to as many people as possible as fast as.

Up until about 12 years ago we never, ever, wore flak jacket or helmets but now the nastiness has got worse.

No two wars are identical.

I will never retire.

The better the information it has, the better democracy works. Silence and secrecy are never good for it.

Now children as young as nine carry AK47s which can kill 30 people in seconds.

I don't want to be involved in endless media gossip.

People always seem to assume that we have a full, back-up support team - make-up, costume and a driver - but usually, in a war zone, there's only me and the cameraman.

I have never been attracted to any kind of violence.

I keep telling myself to calm down, to take less of an interest in things and not to get so excited, but I still care a lot about liberty, freedom of speech and expression, and fairness in journalism.

It's totally mistaken to suppose that an armed escort is going to give a journalist any protection - on the contrary, journalists who turn up surrounded by armed personnel are just turning themselves into targets and in even worse danger.

I have nothing to do with the selection of stories. I'm the reporter.

I was timid and frightened as a child. Yours truly did not shin up mountains or do any other kind of adventurous stuff.

It wasn't glamorous in my day. In the regions, reporters were seen as such low life that they didn't merit their name in the Radio Times. Now people are interested in being famous. I never gave it a thought.

I wrote in the book very specifically what I wanted to write about, period, and left it at.

I've never been one to sit around and eat my heart out. Life's too short.

I was sent to a nice Church of England girls' school and at that time, after university, a woman was expected to become a teacher, a nurse or a missionary - prior to marriage.

Beslan, where the Russian authorities stopped live coverage of the school being stormed, was an illustration of the progress we still have to make.

When you are covering a life-or-death struggle, as British reporters were in 1940, it is legitimate and right to go along with military censorship, and in fact in situations like that there wouldn't be any press without the censorship.

On the Northern Ireland question, for instance, the British and Irish governments prohibit media contact with members of the IRA, but we have always gone ahead, believing in the right to information.

I sailed through my childhood with a complete lack of any drama.

I have no time for the endless nostalgia: 'Oh gosh I used to . . . ' Life is too short; I don't have any time for sitting and saying I miss things. What's the point? Go and do something else.

War zones are dangerous, protests can be violent, also, natural disasters are difficult to cover, so there are going to be risks.

I'm used to being surrounded by really smart 22-year-old students who have no problem saying that something I suggested is not a very good idea.

The breadth of the potential readership is also a factor.

A powerful idea communicates some of its strength to him who challenges it.

Danger gleams like sunshine to a brave mans eyes.

The ideal way to win a championship is step by step.

I can see why people keep having babies. We were looking at a school for my youngest this morning, and there were all these little boys and girls. So sweet. And then the teenagers walk past, and, my God, they're enormous, and I bet they don't kiss their mummies. I'm just going to force my children to remain lovely.

To photograph is to hold one's breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality. It's at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.

If you keep on saying a single thing to yourself, you are likely to attract it to yourself, dreaming it always, then in a twinkle of an eye, it comes to you.

That all who have ever been born men from the beginning of creation, and are deceased, are either in heaven or in hell, follows from those things which have been said and shown in the preceding article, namely, that Heaven and Hell are from the human race.

White Zombie was a bunch of kids with the worst equipment playing in a basement. But that is what is so great about it. There is no reason to think that you can't do it.

What am I afraid of? The IRS. That's it. I don't want those people knockin' on my door, man.

You see what happens in college and high school games today - a three-point shot or a dunk. I think that's the reason that you see a lot of that in the pros today.

Stability is more essential to success than brilliance.

A lot of directors want to storyboard you, whereas the best way to get a performance out of an actor is a collaborative process where you listen to the actor's input.

The animated books pay the lowest rates at the Big Two and you can forget about royalties.

I know that Britain and the United States and others ship arms in the Middle East, 10 or maybe 100 times more than the Russian does.

Before signing any contract, you have to assume that the guy on the other side of the desk is handing you a shifty piece of paper that works to his advantage. I know that sounds cynical, but it's really that simple.

A lot of other reality shows on television can be bullying and aggressive, but we wanted 'The Bake Off' to be an antidote to that.

Joy is not the result of getting what you want; it is the way to get what you want. In the deepest sense, joy is what you want.