We don't really listen to what the other person is saying. We have gotten used to information being in such a concentrated form all the time, and so continuously, that conversation somehow seems inadequate for a lot of people, and therefore they can't join in it. You notice how many people can't argue anymore - without getting very upset.

The noise that we can expect in the future will only increase and we'll be wishing for rural Portugal or something like that.

I don't want to sell other people trips! I want to be there!

If you see our best seller list, most of them are books that are given as gifts. They are books you give to flatter somebody.

It is a gift, and you realize as soon as you cross the border into Paraguay, as I did, the first time in '82, that you are in a sort of wonderland. Nothing is quite right: the buildings, they've got their own architecture, their own language; and everything is just a little bit off key.

Diplomacy was what I wanted to do. From really quite an early age and I think I had a false impression that diplomacy equals travel.

I would love to write a book that opens people's eyes to the more interesting side.