The good Lord in his ultimate wisdom gave us three things to make life bearable: hope, jokes, and dogs, but the greatest of these was dogs.

The most difficult part of any endeavour is taking the first step, making the first decision.

By now I was utterly deprogrammed. I walked along naked usually, clothes being not only putrid but unnecessary. My skin had been baked a deep terra-cotta brown and was the constituency of harness leather. The sun no longer penetrated it. I retained my hat.

I hate hats! Hats just give you really bad hair! I had a hat sometimes. Frankly, you get burnt so much anyway, it's beside the point. And when you're walking into the western sun, no hat in the world is going to save your face and neck from being sizzled.

Some of us just don't want to be famous ... anonymity cannot be bought for any price, once you have lost it.

I just don't see myself as a travel writer. I can't. I don't.

Camel trips, as I suspected all along, and as I was about to have confirmed, do not being or end: they mere change form.