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.
Pico IyerGandhi or Bishop Tutu or the Dalai Lama. I think they're really embodiments of what we aspire to and, by keeping them in our heads, we're reminding ourselves of who we could be. That's what we're hoping to climb up towards.
Pico IyerAs soon as I'm on the road, I see, often palpably, that I know nothing at all, which is always a great liberation.
Pico IyerMany people would say that A Tibetan monk, even in Lhasa, may be free while the ruler of China may not be free.
Pico Iyer