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

Bogotá seemed a cruel towering place, like an eagles' nest now inhabited by vultures and their dying prey.

The measure of civilized behavior is compassion.

Indian enterprises seemed to work so well they produced disasters; success made them burst at the seams and the disruption of unprecedented orders led to shortages and finally failure.

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

Basically, what you find out is the limits of your patience and your strength and your capacity to adapt. You find that out in travel and being alone and being tested. So that's a great thing.

Albania in 1994 was the strangest place I've ever seen. It was like walking into the looking glass: falling apart, paranoid people, anarchy, no one farming, full of thieves. It was beyond any Third World country. They were living in their own private nightmare.