You define a good flight by negatives: you didn't get hijacked, you didn't crash, you didn't throw up, you weren't late, you weren't nauseated by the food. So you are grateful.

It's only when you're alone that you realize where you are. You have nothing to fall back on except your own resources.

You can't write about a friend, you can only write about a former friend.

Airplanes have dulled and desensitized us; we are encumbered, like lovers in a suit of armor.

A novel captures essence that is not possible in any other form.

In a way, Che Guevara's fate was far worse than Simon Bolivar's. Guevara's collapse was complete: his intentions were forgotten, but his style was taken up by boutique owners (one of the fanciest clothes stores in London is called Che Guevara). There is no faster way of destroying a man or mocking his ideas than making him fashionable. That Che succeeded in influencing dress-designers was part of his tragedy.

One of the pleasures of reading is seeing this alteration on the pages, and the way, by reading it, you have made the book yours.