People talk about the pain of writing, but very few people talk about the pleasure and satisfaction.

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

The conversation, like many others I had with people on trains, derived an easy candour from the shared journey, the comfort of the dining car, and the certain knowledge that neither of us would see each other again.

The worst thing that can happen to you in travel is having a gun pointed at you by a very young person. That's happened to me maybe four times in my life. I didn't like it.

My house is a place I have spent many years improving to the point where I have no desire to leave it.

I always found myself in the company of Australians, who were like a reminder that I'd touched bottom.

Travel is an attitude, a state of mind. It is not residence, it is motion.