Norway was occupied by the Germans in the Second World War, and I've met a lot of people who had to live through that occupation in varying degrees.

My friends would certainly call me out if I didn't say that I like to create a bit of chaos and stir things up in my own life.

Certainly, anyone whom I've witnessed, who has gone through something horrible and life-changing, has a sense of ironic humor, or an ability to look at the peculiarities of the world and find humor in it.

Well, I have a Norwegian father who emigrated to America in the 1950s, and he still speaks with varying degrees of an accent. Over my lifetime my ear has been well-tuned to that accent. Any first generation kid has that wonderful gift from their parents.

A world in which elves exist and magic works offers greater opportunities to digress and explore.

For many years I thought my job was to go to places where it would be difficult for most of the readers to ever get to. Now, in the more than 20 years I've been doing this, the concept of adventure-travel trips or expeditions by groups has sprung up. The places I went 20 years ago now have adventure-travel trips.

When you say you're from Virginia, when you travel outside of this state and somebody asks where you're from, you say with pride, 'I am from Virginia. I'm very, very proud of it.' You're very, very proud of it. And why is it? It's because of our history, folks. It's because of our history.

Being in the wrestling business, it was a whole lot to deal with in a short amount of time. I went from amateur wrestling one minute to, the next minute, I'm traveling the world, and I'm on the road 250 days a year.