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.

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.

You can't write about a friend, you can only write about a former friend.

You may not know it but I'm no good at coping with all the attention in the luxury hotels I sometimes find myself in.

In countries where all the crooked politicians wear pin-striped suits, the best people are bare-assed.

People who don't read books a lot are threatened by books.

I like the idea of isolation, I like the idea of solitude. You can be connected and have a phone and still be lonely.