Tony Robinson Quotes

I keep being surprised by the amount of archaeological sites and features that are left to find all over the world.

One of the things that I love to do is travel around the world and look at archaeological sites. Because archaeology gives us an opportunity to study past civilizations, and see where they succeeded and where they failed. Use science to, you know, work backwards and say, 'Well, really, what were they thinking?'

Archaeologists are underpaid publicity agents for deceased royalty.

Just as a fossil is 'petrified time,' so is an ancient artifact or text.

Archaeology is the peeping Tom of the sciences. It is the sandbox of men who care not where they are going; they merely want to know where everyone else has been.

We are like ignorant shepherds living on a site where great civilizations once flourished. The shepherds play with the fragments that pop up to the surface, having no notion of the beautiful structures of which they were once a part.

I'm inspired by history, different periods.

I'm very interested in the idea of unusual museums, ones that are not necessarily contemporary art museums - more like historical collections or house museums.

I spent most of the '60s, when I was starting to try to write novels, living and working in Greece and Turkey. These are countries where the ancient past is interfused with the daily present, and I remember being struck with wonder at the constant sense of continuity and connection, the reminders that lie in wait for you at every turn.

Any period is fascinating: the more ancient, the better.

I'd always been fascinated by archaeology; it was my original career plan as a kid.

My films have a lot of historical context; I'm a huge fan of ruins. You see a lot of ruin work in my movies, I like ruins.

I studied archaeology.

The tasks of paleontologists and classical historians and archaeologists are remarkably similar - to excavate, decipher and bring to life the tantalizing remnants of a time we will never see.

Stories are artifacts, not really made things which we create and can take credit for, but pre-existing objects which we dig up.

The Italians have had 2,000 years to fix up the Forum and just look at the place!

I think at the moment we did not even want to break the seal [on the inner chamber of the tomb of Tutankhamen], for a feeling of intrusion had descended heavily upon us... We felt that we were in the presence of the dead King and must do him reverence, and in imagination could see the doors of the successive shrines open one.

If I was wealthy I'd never do anything but poke around in ruined cities all over the world - and probably get snake-bit.

Rome is one enormous mausoleum. There, the Past lies visibly stretched upon his bier. There is no today or tomorrow in Rome; it is perpetual yesterday.

That's what I want to do, ultimately: figure out a way to get the world engaged with discovery and protecting these ancient sites.

The most exciting part of what I do is understanding the scale of what we don't know. There are just countless archaeological sites all over the world, and one of the most important and best ways of finding them is using digital technology.

I'm in a museum. I'm a relic.

I go to museums all the time.

Archaeology holds all the keys to understanding who we are and where we come from.

I was always a history buff.