If I were beginning my career today I don't think I would take the same direction. Television is at a crossroads at the moment. And although I am not up to date technologically I suspect that somewhere out there people are conveying things about natural history by means other than television and I think if I were beginning today I'd be there.

At every crossroads on the path that leads to the future tradition has placed 10 000 men to guard the past.

We're at the crossroads. Down one road is a European centralized bureaucratic socialist welfare system in which politicians and bureaucrats define the future. Down the other road is a proud solid reaffirmation of American exceptionalism.

I have also just finished three weeks on a soap opera in England. The soap opera is a rather famous one called Crossroads. It was first on television 25 years ago and it has recently been brought back. I play the part of a businessman called David Wheeler.

We are at a crossroads in the music business: with the rise of the internet the world we live in has changed and the past is not coming back. But I see the glass as half-full: the internet and social networking are new avenues for the next Bob Dylan to be born on.