Extensive traveling induces a feeling of encapsulation, and travel, so broadening at first, contracts the mind.

Although I'm not fluent in sign language by a long way, I could have a fairly decent conversation.

Travel is about failure or overcoming obstacles, overcoming failures. When a traveler is having lots of good luck, that is not a happy book. That's a book you say, well, I don't need that. I want a life lesson. I want to find out - I want a journey that reflects my life.

I don't think I've ever seen a person having a serious conversation on a cellphone. It's like a kiddie thing, a complete time waster.

Now and then in travel, something unexpected happens that transforms the whole nature of the trip and stays with the traveler.

Cooking requires confident guesswork and improvisation-- experimentation and substitution, dealing with failure and uncertainty in a creative way

Ever since childhood, when I lived within earshot of the Boston and Maine, I have seldom heard a train go by and not wished I was on it.