It is usually expensive and lonely to be principled.

Loneliness in travel directs you and tells you about yourself. You don't become lonely unless you're alone.

My greatest inspiration is memory.

Unless there is a strong sense of place there is no travel writing, but it need not come from topographical description; dialogue can also convey a sense of place. Even so, I insist, the traveler invents the place. Feeling compelled to comment on my travel books, people say to me, "I went there"---China, India, the Pacific, Albania-- "and it wasn't like that." I say, "Because I am not you.

The monotony of staying in one place is the best thing for writing a novel. Having regular habits, a kind of security, but especially no big surprises, no shocks.

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

You can't want to be a writer. You have to be one.