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.

Bogotá seemed a cruel towering place, like an eagles' nest now inhabited by vultures and their dying prey.

I grew up in an era of thinking of travel as escape. The idea that you could conceivably have a new life, go somewhere, fall in love, have little children under the palm trees.

My house is a place I have spent many years improving to the point where I have no desire to leave it.

There's always a way if you're not in a hurry.

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.

When I went to Hong Kong, I knew at once I wanted to write a story set there.