Luxury is the enemy of observation, a costly indulgence that induces such a good feeling that you notice nothing. Luxury spoils and infantilizes you and prevents you from knowing the world.

One of the pleasures of reading is seeing this alteration on the pages, and the way, by reading it, you have made the book yours.

I'm not pessimistic about Africa. The cities just seem big and hopeless. But there's still a great green heart where there's possibility. There's hope in the wilderness.

Reading liberates you. You could know about the world through reading.

You think of travellers as bold, but our guilty secret is that travel is one of the laziest ways on earth of passing the time.

I am happy being what I am.

It is almost axiomatic that the worst trains take you through magical places.