Natural History Is Not About Producing Fables.

Children Start Off Reading In Books About Lions And Giraffes And So On, But They Also-if Theyre Lucky Enough And Have Reasonable Privileges Of Any Human Being-are Able To Go Into A Garden And Turn Over Stone And See A Worm And See A Slug And See An Ant.

Humanity Is Facing A Very Big, Slow, Long, Drawn-out Threat, And That Is To Do With The Way The Weather Is Changing And The Size Of The Population.

It Never Really Occurred To Me To Believe In God.

I've Never Actually Met One In The Wild, But I Have Seen A King Cobra. They Go Towards People, They Rear Up Six Feet Tall And They're Very Aggressive And They Are Very Fast. And One Bite Means Certain Death. So If I Encountered A King Cobra In The Wild I Would Be Very Alarmed.

Sentimentalising Is Anathema, As Far As I Am Concerned. It Leads You Into Ethical Problems About Violence And Killing And Eating Meat. The Whole World Becomes Topsy-survy If You Impose Moralities That Were Evolved Within Human Society On What A Blowfly Or What A Parasite Does... There Are Lots Of Emotions You Can Deduce From An Animal's Behaviour That Are Correct, But When You Start Saying It's Feeling Guilty Or Thinking Or A Loved One Or Mourning, You Must Be Very Careful Of Those Feelings.