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I wanted to be an explorer, but gradually found the world had been explored and that there was nowhere left, really. Once they climbed Everest in 1953, when I was 10 years old, I thought, 'Well, that's pretty much it now.' But the idea of travelling and exploring and adventure was very strong.

Every time I've been on Everest, people have died, though not in any expedition I was part of.

I've been traveling around the world forever.

I've always walked and climbed; spent a lot of time in the arctic and places.

On the summit of Everest, I had a feeling of great satisfaction to be first there.

As the President has indicated, my life has been a life of travel - for 60 years constantly moving over the wide world on journeys which first and last have taken me to 83 countries, and, what is more significant, to most of them again and again.

I always wanted to be an explorer, but - it seemed I was doomed to be nothing more than a very silly person.

I've traveled around the world.

I don't think of myself as an explorer but as an athlete.

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.