Because I don't belong entirely to Britain or the U.S. or India or Japan, I build my foundations in some way deeper than mere passports, and more in the light of where I'm going than of "where I come from."

I think people like me are in a relatively privileged position because we have to some extent chosen to live in foreign places. I would always make the distinction between those who are exiles in terms of being thrown out of the place they want to be, and others who are exiles in terms of going toward a place they would rather be.

Dalai Lama is transforming those criteria - and the whole way of conducting politics. He's conducting politics in a much deeper way than most politicians are able to. He's the only politician I know of who's a monk. The Pope, of course, is in a similar position, but the Pope isn't in the same way leading a country of many million people.

There's so much visible stuff around now, we're tempted to forget that it's usually the invisible that matters most.

All good trips are, like love, about being carried out of yourself and deposited in the midst of terror and wonder.

I'm one of those perverse people who likes being alone. I always took myself to be a community of one. That's what I am comfortable with.

In an age of constant movement, nothing is more urgent than sitting still.