Once I've Decided To Do Something, I

I Don't Spend A Lot Of Time Thinking About Dying, But I Like To Think That I've - If It Did Occur - That I Would Die Peacefully And Not Make Too Much Of A Fuss About It.

[derek] Shackleton Was A Man Who - It's Probably Arrogant To Say It - But He Was A Little Bit Like Me. He Undertook Incredible Dangers And Carried On Over The Sea And Over The Ice And All The Rest Of It. He Was A Remarkable Man.

I Was Incredibly Stubborn. I Mean, I Believe That My Father Was Frequently In The Right, But I Would Never Admit It, And So We Did Have A Few Set-tos On Various Topics; But On The Whole As I Got Older And My Father Got More Mature We Got Along Reasonably Well.

June [hillary] Is A Very Strong Influence In My Life And Particularly Now In My Ancient Years There Is No Doubt At All: If There's A Decision To Be Made, Quite Often June Is The One Who Makes It.

When I Was 50 Years Old, I Actually Decided To Draw Up A List Of Half A Dozen Things That I Really Hadn't Done Very Well, And I Was Going To Make Efforts To Improve. One Of Them Was Skiing, And I Really Did Become A Very Much Better Skier.