BEIRUT: For Richard Quest, there’s never a bad time to talk about the looming American debt crisis. It is very early Friday morning and Quest is sat in his luxury suite high up in the rafters of a plush hotel overlooking the St. George Marina. “They are playing with economic dynamite,” he says, the last word positively fizzing from his lips.

Despite the early start, following a 2 a.m. finish last night, Quest is unflaggingly energetic. He cannot stay still for a moment, zipping off to all corners of the room during the course of a three-quarter hour chat. He gesticulates, pontificates and generally gets himself worked up into a tie-waving frenzy.

In short, the face of CNN’s business news coverage is exactly the same off screen as he is on it.

The renowned television journalist is in Beirut to film the latest stretch of his show, “Future Cities,” and his schedule is packed: 10 days of wall-to-wall filming, multiple suit changes and interviews with everyone from market traders to the prime minister.

“I’ve been to the Middle East before, of course. I have not been like ‘Ooh wow. It’s hot. Sandy.’ Don’t worry, we are not going to spend our time in gilded lily suites like this,” he says, gesturing to the high-end surroundings. He does one Future Cities shoot a month, and has already profiled places such as Copenhagen, Kigali and Valencia.

“I get a briefing note that tells me about the place and what we are going to do and who we are going to be meeting,” Quest says. “And vast amounts of interesting detail, which I attempt to read before I get on the plane. I did really well with this one, I actually read it. Maybe because I knew I was meeting the prime minister so you can’t just come here and blag your way through.”

Has he ever blagged it? “Oh, God yes. Any journalist who says he hasn’t turned up having looked at the cuttings in the elevator on the way to a story is talking crap. But you don’t do that with something like Beirut,” he says.

While admitting that he is still getting to grips with the place, Quest argues that Beirut has the potential to be prosperous in coming years. For him, what’s crucial is its stability.

“Beirut has always been high on the agenda because it’s got interesting aspects to it in terms of redevelopment and heritage, old versus new,” he explains. “One thing has constantly struck me, not just here, is that you always get the feeling this would be a great place if it wasn’t for the politicians.

“If you look at what this place has got, it’s got the Med, it’s got the buildings, it’s got the resources, it’s got a comfortable, nice way of life – gross domestic product per capita $14,000 – it’s not poor, at its middle level it’s not destitute. So you ask yourself: What the hell? Can’t they just bloody well sort this damn thing out once and for all? What are [they] fighting over? And I think that’s something one does sometimes think about, but that’s not my prerogative,” he adds.

“Stability has to be the key. If you don’t have stability, all you end up with is dodgy money.”

He describes the series, the Beirut edition of which starts August 1, as a “moveable feast” of business journalism. He maintains that the best way of working out whether or not Beirut is worthy of Future City status is to talk to as many people here as possible.

“You literally just keep digging. You go into markets, you talk to as many people as possible, you read the newspaper, you talk to people from the moment you board the plane,” he says. “That sort of thing starts the process of getting you into understanding. Just keep meeting people.”

Quest has, of course, met many people over his 20 years in broadcasting. While his rise to prominence was partially down to his unorthodox presenting style – which won him many loyal fans – his on screen persona has attracted its share of criticism. Is it fair to say he’s a divisive figure?

“I’m not everyone’s cup of tea and there are people who cannot stand my guts. Do I revel in that? No. When I read my emails and there is someone who has written to me telling me I am the biggest piece of excrement on this earth, who should never have been allowed to be born – and I’ve had people tell me I should have been aborted at birth – I think to myself: I’ve got a mother. She doesn’t want to read that. What have I ever done to that person that’s unleashed this vitriol?” he says.

But whatever people say about him, his passion for the job is undimmed.

“I love it. I’ve always wanted to do broadcast, not written journalism. I love, with the ego of an elephant, seeing my name in print. It doesn’t bother me to see myself on television anymore. But when I see my name in print, I think it’s much harder [to do that]. [But] I think the way I do my job is harder,” he says.

“I’m not the best writer in the world, I’m certainly not the best television journalist in the world but one thing I have got is the staying power to keep going. I don’t fatigue easily.”

He’s about to embark on a marathon nine-hour link shoot throughout the capital, trudging through the summer heat and delivering piece after enthused piece to camera.

Before he dons his steam-ironed jacket to brave the film crew waiting outside, he turns and tells me why, after more than two decades of business reporting, he keeps zipping from city to city and delving into their respective economic minutiae.

“Every day I get up and I get the chance to tell somebody something they didn’t know,” he says.

Just another day in the mile-a-minute life of Richard Quest.