A national crisis, a political convulsion, is an opportunity, a gift to the traveler. Nothing is more revealing of a place to a stranger than trouble. Even if a crisis is incomprehensible, as it usually is, it lends drama to the day and transforms the traveler into an eye witness.

If people are driving you around to look at animals, that's wonderful. That's educational, but it's not necessarily enlightening and you're not finding out much about yourself.

The greatest justification for travel is not self-improvement but rather performing a vanishing act, disappearing without a trace.

Fiction gives us a second chance that life denies us.

One of the upsides of tourism is that people begin to take themselves a little more seriously (and think their) culture is worth something. So rather than disparaging the local culture, they vitalize it.

Travel works best when you're forced to come to terms with the place you're in.

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