Christine Tjia

Sir David Frost, broadcaster and producer

My father often used to talk about that old proverb, "Even a stopped clock is right twice a day". In other words, everybody you meet has something to teach you – if you take the trouble to find it. The most unlikely person can enlighten your life. That’s tremendously important for the self-worth of the people you meet, as well as your own.

The are all sorts of ways in which we’re not equal, but we are all equal in what we can strive for. When I interviewed Senator Robert Kennedy back in 1968 – the last interview he gave before his assasination – I asked him how he would like to be remembered. He replied, "Well, there is a line of Albert Camus that says, 'This is a world in which children suffer.' I’d like to have made a contribution to lessening that suffering." Kennedy spoke a lot about making a contribution. He used to say, "For if we do not do this, then who will to this?". It’s so simple : if you have a talent, you have a duty to use it to the full.

Making a contribution and making a difference – they should be linked – is not only something that famous people can do, or that dead politicians can be quoted on. It is something that everyone can do in their own lives…