Writer

I'm not certain that the BBC can claim to be making a wide enough range of distinctive programmes to make the case convincingly.

I have a great deal of joy in my life, and I'm very fortunate. That combination makes you aware of just how wonderful life can be on the one hand and how dreadful it can be for people on the other. You can't be happy in isolation.

My only real claim to fame is that I was southern England show-jumping champion in 1966. The day after my father died, 'Horse & Hound' magazine tipped me as a future Olympic champion, and I took it seriously. You can only really enjoy something if you take it seriously.

You have to be damn certain you're putting something better in its place.

I'm not certain that the BBC can claim to be making a wide enough range of distinctive programmes to make the case convincingly.

My only real claim to fame is that I was southern England show-jumping champion in 1966. The day after my father died, 'Horse & Hound' magazine tipped me as a future Olympic champion, and I took it seriously. You can only really enjoy something if you take it seriously.

The long, forensic interview really matters.

Food is about communal togetherness. Our family does sit at the table. I think it's a great tragedy if a family doesn't have a table, as there is such an atmosphere of good will and warmth when we have eight people sitting around it.

The challenge is the culture. You have to have a vision for the BBC-it can't merely be that it's big and has a place in the market.

The BBC produces wonderful programmes; it also produces a load of old rubbish.

The BBC produces wonderful programmes; it also produces a load of old rubbish.

I have to grit my teeth sometimes, knowing I am going to be written about. But I think it is my life, and I don't want to get people interested in debating it. But I do feel that if you are going to put yourself about as a public person on a television screen, there's a curiosity.

While I have corrected agreed factual errors, I have not been inhibited from writing what I felt to be the truth about The Prince of Wales.

I was born with a silver microphone in my mouth, and that was an advantage. My father wrote books and was also a great broadcaster.

The long, forensic interview really matters.

I don't love the media. I'm part of it, but you can't love a porcupine.

Food is important to me, but I wouldn't say that I'm a gourmet. I don't like tricksy food.

For a few months when I was about 17, I smoked a small cigar because I thought it looked cool and it would get me the girls. It didn't.

It is easy enough to hold an opinion, but rather more testing to act on it.

In the world in which we live, truth is an ancillary virtue, but it shouldn't be.