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

The measure of civilized behavior is compassion.

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.

The United States is a world unto itself. We have mountains, we have deserts, we have a river that equals the Yangtze River, that equals the Nile. We have the greatest cities in the world - among the greatest cities in the world. We have a large population. We have challenges. We have an indigenous population.

I hate vacations. I hate them. I have no fun on them. I get nothing done. People sit and relax, but I don't want to relax. I want to see something.

Travel is only glamorous in retrospect.

Gain a modest reputation for being unreliable and you will never be asked to do a thing.