Even if I were traveling with you, your trip would not be mine.

Anything is possible on a train: a great meal, a binge, a visit from card players, an intrigue, a good night's sleep, and strangers' monologues framed like Russian short stories.

In a way, Che Guevara's fate was far worse than Simon Bolivar's. Guevara's collapse was complete: his intentions were forgotten, but his style was taken up by boutique owners (one of the fanciest clothes stores in London is called Che Guevara). There is no faster way of destroying a man or mocking his ideas than making him fashionable. That Che succeeded in influencing dress-designers was part of his tragedy.

People talk about the pain of writing, but very few people talk about the pleasure and satisfaction.

Airplanes have dulled and desensitized us; we are encumbered, like lovers in a suit of armor.

It's only when you're alone that you realize where you are. You have nothing to fall back on except your own resources.

They say that if the Swiss had designed these mountains they'd be rather flatter.