I am mostly full time dad and my time is mostly at the mercy of an awesome little boy. I write when I can.

All the damn time, it comes with the territory. My family valiantly put up with most of them. Though the older I get, the bolder I am about saying no.

It is possible to be a good scientist, a good mother and have a family and even bake a cake.

In the first 33 years of my life which is up until I climbed Everest, I was a very restless and slightly unhappy sort of person. I really didn’t have a great deal of social life, but I’d become very interested in adventurous activities. Perhaps, I was, in some respects something of a loner. But after I got married, that certainly changed my life very considerably, indeed. I found that it was possible to mix having a family with continuing on with adventurous activities, but I think a great deal of that was having a suitable wife. My wife was very, long-suffering. She knew that there were certain things I wanted to do and she was happy that I should do them. She was prepared to put up with considerable periods of being alone with the kids. She, was marvelous, so it made it possible for me to do the things that I wanted to do as well.

I used to use the brush before that time before 2015, but then I gave it up for a while. Now I’m back on the brush, so that’s the truth.

I know what I’m doing when I’m doing it but I almost don’t know what I’m doing when I’m doing it.

So living with my dad for sure influenced me.

I can start from any space when I feel it and find my way back from there.

I know when it’s completed but I don’t have a formula for this.

Whenever we went out to dinner or a party, especially when I had a temper tantrum, drawing was the remedy of choice. It only calmed me down. [Laughs] It still does.