Quote

I wanted to go into the tropics and save animals - and write, of course.

Knowing that we are primates, I think, is a fascinating discovery, and a very interesting and rather cheering one.

I got to Africa. I got the opportunity to go and learn, not about any animal, but chimpanzees. I was living in my dream world, the forest in Gombe National Park in Tanzania. It was Tanganyika when I began.

I loved dinosaurs, I loved space, and I thought maybe I'd be the first paleo-astronaut.

There's an incomparable rush that comes from finding dinosaur bones. You know you're the first person to lay hands on a critter that lived 80 or 90 million years ago.

When I realized, in 1978, that Lucy did represent a new species of human ancestor, and that I had an opportunity to name this new species, I realized this was a revolutionary step in understanding human origins.

I went to start the first Ethiopian-led project in paleoanthropology, ever. Doing that was not easy.

I thought this was the most incredible opportunity. Because 'Planet Of The Apes,' aside from the fantasy element of talking apes, is such an amazing franchise, because under the surface of that genre, you're actually looking at human nature.

Through the study of fossils I had already been initiated into the mysteries of prehistoric creations.

When the first fossils began to be found in eastern Africa, in the late 1950s, I thought, what a wonderful marriage this was, biology and anthropology. I was around 16 years old when I made this particular choice of academic pursuit.