A gun show is about like-minded people who feel as if everything has been taken away from them - jobs, money, pride.

Sometimes people read a book in order to not go on a trip. You read a book instead of going on the trip. And so the travel writer is doing the traveling for you.

Reading liberates you. You could know about the world through reading.

Mark Twain was a great traveler and he wrote three or four great travel books. I wouldn't say that I'm a travel novelist but rather a novelist who travels - and who uses travel as a background for finding stories of places.

Pain does not create a long-lasting memory, but the memory of luxury exerts itself for ever.

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

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.