The measure of civilized behavior is compassion.

It is almost axiomatic that the worst trains take you through magical places.

...a society without jaywalkers might indicate a society without artists.

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 grew up in an era of thinking of travel as escape. The idea that you could conceivably have a new life, go somewhere, fall in love, have little children under the palm trees.

The Japanese have perfected good manners and made them indistinguishable from rudeness.

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.