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

There are probably more annoying things than being hectored about African development by a wealthy Irish rock star in a cowboy hat, but I can't think of one at the moment.

An island is a fixed and finite piece of geography, and usually the whole place has been carved up and claimed.

You must not judge people by their country. In South America, it is always wise to judge people by their altitude.

So far I had been travelling alone with my handbook and my Western Railway timetable: I was happiest finding my own way and did not require a liaison man. It had been my intention to stay on the train, without bothering about arriving anywhere: sight-seeing was a way of passing the time, but, as I had concluded in Istanbul, it was an activity very largely based on imaginative invention, like rehearsing your own play in stage sets from which all the actors had fled.

The measure of civilized behavior is compassion.

I cannot make my days longer so I strive to make them better.