Travel is not really about leaving our homes, but leaving our habits.

Like the moon on the water, in a way. When you confront a Zen master, what you're really seeing are not his limitations but yours.

When one questions [Dalai Lama's] political actions, it is worth remembering that he's the single most experienced politician on the planet at this moment.

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

Writing is, in the end, that oddest of anomalies: an intimate letter to a stranger.

Often when we think of exile we think of destruction or loss. But the Dalai Lama always says exile is reality, it's something we can make use of, and he has used it to get rid of everything that he thought was stifling and old, and to create a new, improved and much healthier Tibet.

Lonely Places, then are the places that are not on international wavelengths, do not know how to carry themselves, are lost when it comes to visitors. They are shy, defensive, curious places; places that do not know how they are supposed to behave.