Sometimes people read a book in order to not go on a trip. You read a book instead of going on the trip. And so the travel writer is doing the traveling for you.

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.

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.

Now and then in travel, something unexpected happens that transforms the whole nature of the trip and stays with the traveler.

The amount of hassle involved in travel can be overwhelming.

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

I always found myself in the company of Australians, who were like a reminder that I'd touched bottom.