I would say that by virtue of transforming politics, [Dalai Lama] is in fact easily underestimated.

None of the things in life - like love or faith - was arrived at by thinking; indeed, one could almost define the things that mattered as the ones that came as suddenly as thunder.

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

The reason I love travel is not just because it transports you in every sense, but because it confronts you with emotional and moral challenges that you would never have to confront at home. So I like going out in search of moral and emotional adventure which throws me back upon myself and forces me to reconsider my assumptions and the things I took for granted. It sends me back a different person.

That's the great advantage of being a foreigner: you're not paying your dues, but you are getting all the benefits.

Adventure today means finding one's way back to the silence and stillness of a thousand years ago.

The Australians, it seems to me, thrive on their remoteness from the world and see it as a way of keeping up a code of "No worries, mate," while peddling their oddities to visitors: nonconformity is at once a fact of life for many, and a selling point.