Fiction gives us a second chance that life denies us.

A travel book is a book that puts you in the shoes of the traveler, and it's usually a book about having a very bad time, having a miserable time, even better. You don't want to read a book about someone having a great time in the South of France, eating and drinking and falling in love. What you want to read is a book about a guy going through the jungle, going through the arctic snow, having a terrible time trying to cross the Sahara, and solving problems as they go.

I think I understand passion. Love is something else.

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.

... Oceanic malaise. I never saw anyone reading anything more demanding than a comic book. I never heard any youth express an interest in science or art. No one even talked politics. It was all idleness, and whenever I asked someone a question, no matter how simple, no matter how well the person spoke English, there was always a long pause before I got a reply, and I found these Pacific pauses maddening. And there was giggling but no humor - no wit. It was just foolery.

When I went to Hong Kong, I knew at once I wanted to write a story set there.

Sightseeing was ... based on imaginative invention, like rehearsing your own play in stage sets from which all the actors had fled.