I cannot make my days longer so I strive to make them better.

When I was in the Peace Corps I never made a phone call. I was in Central Africa; I didn't make a phone call for two years. I was in Uganda for another four years and I didn't make a phone call. So for six years I didn't make a phone call, but I wrote letters, I wrote short stories, I wrote books.

There's always a way if you're not in a hurry.

I don't think I've ever seen a person having a serious conversation on a cellphone. It's like a kiddie thing, a complete time waster.

There has to be a measure of difficulty or problem-solving in travel for it to be worthwhile.

I think most serious and omnivorous readers are alike- intense in their dedication to the word, quiet-minded, but relieved and eagerly talkative when they meet other readers and kindred spirits.

You think of travellers as bold, but our guilty secret is that travel is one of the laziest ways on earth of passing the time.