I was uncomfortable writing fiction. My love was the personal essay rather than the novel.

As we write, so we build: to keep a record of what matters to us.

We are sad at home and blame the weather and the ugliness of the buildings, but on the tropical island we learn that the state of the skies and the appearance of our dwellings can never on their own underwrite our joy nor condemn us to misery.

So many complaints boil down to the belly ache of the fragile, mortal, ignored ego in a vast and indifferent universe.

Travel agents would be wiser to ask us what we hope to change about our lives rather than simply where we wish to go.

I think people want to get married to end their emotional uncertainty. In a way, they want to end powerful feelings, or certainly the negative ones.

The pleasure we derive from journeys is perhaps dependent more on the mindset with which we travel than on the destination we travel to.