I should like to save the Shire, if I could – though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them.

I used to pretend that my Peugeot driving to the gym in the rain in Dublin was a Ferrari on the Vegas strip.

Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery.

The balloons only have one life and the only way of finding out whether they work is to attempt to fly around the world.

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.

Adventures are to the adventurous.

A life without adventure is likely to be unsatisfying, but a life in which adventure is allowed to take whatever form it will is sure to be short.

I like the idea of making a big, fun, adventure type of movie.

The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.

A lot of people can’t stand touring but to me it’s like breathing. I do it because I’m driven to do it.

Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Life’s a bit like mountaineering – never look down.

All cartoon characters and fables must be exaggeration, caricatures. It is the very nature of fantasy and fable.

If you had your life to live over again, do it overseas.

Perhaps one day I will go into space.

Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.

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

The Edge… there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.

I think my first thought on reaching the summit- of course, I was very, very pleased to be there, naturally – but my first thought was one of a little bit of surprise. I was a little bit surprised that here I was, Ed Hillary, on top of Mt. Everest. After all, this is the ambition of most mountaineers.

Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.

Love is an adventure and a conquest. It survives and develops, like the universe itself, only by perpetual discovery.

Whenever a thing is done for the first time, it releases a little demon.

Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.

There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter.

It is plain indeed that in spite of later estrangement Hobbits are relatives of ours: far nearer to us than Elves, or even than Dwarves. Of old they spoke the languages of Men, after their own fashion, and liked and disliked much the same things as Men did. But what exactly our relationship is can no longer be discovered.

There’s a certain amount of freedom involved in cycling: you’re self-propelled and decide exactly where to go. If you see something that catches your eye to the left, you can veer off there, which isn’t so easy in a car, and you can’t cover as much ground walking.

New discoveries in science will continue to create a thousand new frontiers for those who still would adventure.

Life is either a great adventure or nothing.

The outpouring of support from millions of people in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti has been impressive.

Exploration by real people inspires us.

I have always loved blizzards, if only because of the driving experience – which is definitely an acquired taste.

Live dangerously and you live right.

I sell escapism.

Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go.

I shall make that trip. I shall go to Korea.

It was wonderful to find America, but it would have been more wonderful to miss it.

Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.

If I wished to do something, even if I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to make the effort with me, I would go out solo climbing. I did find solo climbing very challenging and a little frightening. You knew that you were completely on your own, and you had to overcome all the problems and possible dangers.

When you’re climbing at high altitudes, life can get pretty miserable.

Golf without bunkers and hazards would be tame and monotonous. So would life.

If you do not expect the unexpected you will not find it, for it is not to be reached by search or trail.

Many a trip continues long after movement in time and space have ceased.

‚Discworld‘ is taking something that you know is ridiculous and treating it as if it is serious, to see if something interesting happens when you do so.

While on top of Everest, I looked across the valley towards the great peak Makalu and mentally worked out a route about how it could be climbed. It showed me that even though I was standing on top of the world, it wasn’t the end of everything. I was still looking beyond to other interesting challenges.

I think when people mean that Discworld books have become darker they really mean the series is growing up. In ‚The Colour of Magic‘ most of the city is set alight. It’s a joke, in much the same way that the Earth is destroyed almost at the start of Douglas Adams’s ‚The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.‘

One of the best ways to see tree flowers is to climb one of the tallest trees and to get into close, tingling touch with them, and then look broad.

Anyone who doesn’t have a great time in San Francisco is pretty much dead to me.

On life’s vast ocean diversely we sail. Reasons the card, but passion the gale.

I want to work; then, as my kids get older, I want to have adventures. I want to visit all their countries: learn and live inside all their cultures.

Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages.

I have a fantasy where Ted Turner is elected President but refuses because he doesn’t want to give up power.

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

It makes sense that a witch lives in a swamp.

Any East Coast road trip we have is very exciting, just being on the road, taking it all in.

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.

If I pick up a book with spaceships on the cover, I want spaceships. If I see one with dragons, I want there to be dragons inside the book. Proper labeling. Ethical labeling. I don’t want to open up my cornflakes and find that they’re full of pebbles… You need to respect the reader enough not to call it something it isn’t.

I’m not a parenting expert. In fact, I’m not sure that I even believe in the idea of ‚parenting experts.‘ I’m an engaged, imperfect parent and a passionate researcher. I’m an experienced mapmaker and a stumbling traveler. Like many of you, parenting is by far my boldest and most daring adventure.

Rebellion is what you make of it. When you’ve been on a tour bus for two months straight, and then you get in your car and drive wherever you want, that can feel rebellious.

Death is just life’s next big adventure.

The mountains are calling and I must go.