travel [is] flight and pursuit in equal parts.

In countries where all the crooked politicians wear pin-striped suits, the best people are bare-assed.

He regarded himself as an accomplished writer — a clear sign of madness in anyone.

You define a good flight by negatives: you didn't get hijacked, you didn't crash, you didn't throw up, you weren't late, you weren't nauseated by the food. So you are grateful.

Sometimes people read a book in order to not go on a trip. You read a book instead of going on the trip. And so the travel writer is doing the traveling for you.

Albania in 1994 was the strangest place I've ever seen. It was like walking into the looking glass: falling apart, paranoid people, anarchy, no one farming, full of thieves. It was beyond any Third World country. They were living in their own private nightmare.

Maine is a joy in the summer. But the soul of Maine is more apparent in the winter.