It was no longer her absence that wounded me, but my growing indifference to it. Forgetting, however calming, was also a reminder of infidelity to what I had at one time held so dear.

The greatest difficulty of Travel is that one is forced to take oneself along.

We used to build temples, and museums are about as close as secular society dares to go in facing up to the idea that a good building can change your life (and a bad one ruin it).

Instead of bringing back 1600 plants, we might return from our journeys with a collection of small unfêted but life-enhancing thoughts.

It seems the only way to write a half decent book is to worry oneself sick on an hourly basis that one is producing a complete disaster.

People only get really interesting when they start to rattle the bars of their cages.

The largest part of what we call 'personality' is determined by how we've opted to defend ourselves against anxiety and sadness".