Despite all I have seen and experienced, I still get the same simple thrill out of glimpsing a tiny patch of snow.

Becoming a 'Sir' is slightly uncomfortable at first, although it is a considerable honor. It is amazing how quickly you become accustomed to it.

Many people have been getting too casual about climbing Everest. I forecast a disaster many times.

I'm definitely a Queen supporter. She was great.

Waihi Beach. It's a lovely beach, and we're right on the shore and I get a lot of pleasure out of waking up in the morning and hearing the waves roll in.

It's not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.

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.

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.

I enjoyed climbing with other people, good friends, but I did quite a lot of solo climbing, too.

Mount Everest, you beat me the first time, but I'll beat you the next time because you've grown all you are going to grow... but I'm still growing!

Environmental problems are really social problems anyway. They begin with people as the cause and end with people as the victims.

My mother was a schoolteacher and very keen that I go to a city school, so although it was fairly impoverished times, I traveled every day to the Auckland Grammar School.

I think the really good mountaineer is the man with the technical ability of the professional and with the enthusiasm and freshness of approach of the amateur.

I never talk about being leaders and all the rest of it. I can only remember one or two occasions in my life when I actually issued orders, and I felt thoroughly miserable after doing it.

It's all bullshit on Everest these days.

I still had the same affection for New Zealand as I've always had. Didn't change at all.

I like to think of Everest as a great mountaineering challenge, and when you've got people just streaming up the mountain -- well, many of them are just climbing it to get their name in the paper, really.

I don't know if I particularly want to be remembered for anything. I personally do not think I'm a great gift to the world. I've been very fortunate.

I think Himalayan climbers tend to mature fairly late. I think most of the successful Himalayan climbers have ranged from 28 to just over 40, really.

Once I've decided to do something, I do usually try to carry it through to fruition.