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

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.

Going slowly [...] was the best way of being reminded that there is a relationship between Here and There, and that travel narrative was the story of There and Back.

There are two worlds: the world of the tourist and the world of everyone else. Often they're side by side. But the tourist doesn't actually see how people live.

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

Mark Twain was a great traveler and he wrote three or four great travel books. I wouldn't say that I'm a travel novelist but rather a novelist who travels - and who uses travel as a background for finding stories of places.