I don't think that it's possible to have a truly rewarding experience in travel if it's simple.

In Turkey it was always 1952, in Malaysia 1937; Afghanistan was 1910 and Bolivia 1949. It is 20 years ago in the Soviet Union, 10 in Norway, five in France. It is always last year in Australia and next week in Japan.

Travel books are all sorts - some are autobiographies, some are about falling in love. Some are about having great meals, some are about suffering. There are as many different kinds of travel books as there are novels. People think a travel book is one thing. It's many things.

Maine is a joy in the summer. But the soul of Maine is more apparent in the winter.

To a lot of Africans, seeing an animal is a something of a rarity. So it's a paradox of this sort of parallel life. A safari is an expensive experience and it's adjacent to a place where people are having a very tough time.

I'm constantly running across people who have never heard of books I think they should read.

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