Books admitted me to their world open-handedly, as people for their most part, did not. The life I lived in books was one of ease and freedom, worldly wisdom, glitter, dash and style.
Jonathan RabanSpells of acute loneliness are an essential part of travel. Loneliness makes things happen.
Jonathan RabanWhen I want an opinion, I'll get it from my peers - from men of vision, like our great railroad builders... Stanford, Huntington, Dinsmore... fellows with imaginations broad enough to span the continent.
Jonathan RabanOver emphatic negatives always suggest that what is being denied may be what is really being asserted.
Jonathan RabanOne classic American landscape haunts all of American literature. It is a picture of Eden, perceived at the instant of history when corruption has just begun to set it. The serpent has shown his scaly head in the undergrowth. The apple gleams on the tree. The old drama of the Fall is ready to start all over again.
Jonathan Raban