Travel is at its most rewarding when it ceases to be about your reaching a destination and becomes indistinguishable from living your life

People write about getting sick, they write about tummy trouble, they write about having to wait for a bus. They write about waiting. They write three pages about how long it took them to get a visa. I'm not interested in the boring parts. Everyone has tummy trouble. Everyone waits in line. I don't want to hear about it.

The monotony of staying in one place is the best thing for writing a novel. Having regular habits, a kind of security, but especially no big surprises, no shocks.

The Australian Book of Etiquette is a very slim volume.

Reading is also a journey. It's a process of discovery.

All places, no matter where, no matter what, are worth visiting.

They say that if the Swiss had designed these mountains they'd be rather flatter.