Reinhold Messner: I think that I have only one thing which many other climbers do not have. I had the opportunity in my 15th year to learn naively to survive in the mountains, so it became an instinct. When I was 20, and I met famous climbers — before we went, my brothers, all of them climbed. My younger brother was an extreme climber like me. We became really top climbers. We had no opportunities to know famous climbers because we came out of a small hidden valley in the Dolomites — and seeing some other climbers but not being at least able to speak with them because we had a great respect.