Pain does not create a long-lasting memory, but the memory of luxury exerts itself for ever.

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

Cooking requires confident guesswork and improvisation-- experimentation and substitution, dealing with failure and uncertainty in a creative way

Many aspects of the writing life have changed since I published my first book, in the 1960s. It is more corporate, more driven by profits and marketing, and generally less congenial - but my day is the same: get out of bed, procrastinate, sit down at my desk, try to write something.

Going slowly [...] was the best way of being reminded that there is a relationship between Here and There, and that travel narrative was the story of There and Back.

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

I think that love isn't what you think it is when you're in your twenties or even thirties.