I don't want to be the honored guest. I want to be the invisible person.

Travel works best when you're forced to come to terms with the place you're in.

Reading liberates you. You could know about the world through reading.

You can't save the rhinos and you can't preserve a culture. I'm very pessimistic. Once it's gone, it's over.

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.

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

I like the idea of isolation, I like the idea of solitude. You can be connected and have a phone and still be lonely.