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

Unless there is a strong sense of place there is no travel writing, but it need not come from topographical description; dialogue can also convey a sense of place. Even so, I insist, the traveler invents the place. Feeling compelled to comment on my travel books, people say to me, "I went there"---China, India, the Pacific, Albania-- "and it wasn't like that." I say, "Because I am not you.

You can't want to be a writer. You have to be one.

My house is a place I have spent many years improving to the point where I have no desire to leave it.

A person who is tired of London is not necessarily tired of life; it might be that he just can’t find a parking place.

I'm not pessimistic about Africa. The cities just seem big and hopeless. But there's still a great green heart where there's possibility. There's hope in the wilderness.

It's not fashionable but I like to spit out of the window of a moving train.