"My father taught me to understand that not much was impossible, if you had a mind to go after it. What seems beyond y…"

"Nothing excited me more than opening up the atlas and seeing places and seas, imagining what they looked like and wha…"

"My love for the water would always be tempered by respect for dangers that must never be underestimated."

"My own feeling was that witnessing the explosion of an atomic bomb, and having to examine all the dead animals, had a…"

"Always when we walked, it was clear to me how much he loved nature, wild flowers, animals in their natural habitat an…"

"Going against the tide has never been difficult for me. It wasn’t even a conscious decision but the natural consequen…"

"It took me over three years to get the beret and the most enriching part of the experience was getting to know men fo…"

"Ultimately I wanted to be a pioneer swimmer, a distant descendant of Scott, Amundsen and Hillary, except that I would…"

"I resolved to follow my dream. I wanted to push every boundary. I wanted to swim further than anyone else. I wanted t…"

"Four-point-two kilometres is a long way for a frozen body to sink."