"If you tear open our heart, you will only see Rahul Gandhi...like Hanuman"

“He that counts all cost will never put plough in the earth.”

“Mercury dropped the purple car and shot up into the air, whistling like a shooting star. The woman in the car next to me looked up at me like I was a superhero. I smiled at her and jumped down, trying to be smooth. I landed wrong and went sliding on my face. I glanced back at her. She appeared less impressed than before.”

“The solitary ascent of the Dru had the immediate effect of expanding the horizons of my ideas about mountaineering. It made me aware of possibilities well in advance of the times, which were characterized by very restricted methods. This was how the superb pyramid of K2 surfaced once more in the list of my projects. But I chose K2 as a way for giving concrete form to my new concept of mountaineering: to climb the second highest mountain in the world solo, alpine style, and without oxygen.”

“People trust I know what I'm doing. I have lots of credibility. I've had years of learning. I know and understand my business.”

“In 1952, I had gone to England on a literary pilgrimage, but what I also saw, even at that distance from the blitz, were bombed-out ruins and an enervated society, while the continent was still, psychologically, in the grip of its recent atrocities.”

“I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it.”

“When you know something’s wrong, but you don’t know exactly what it is, the air around you changes.”

“Look, I'm not trying to be critical when I'm on the air.”