The forest did not tolerate frailty of body or mind. Show your weakness, and it would consume you without hesitation.

I was becoming addicted to Bombay. There was squalor and poverty, but I had begun to realise my good fortune and would never again forget it.

There comes a stage at which a man would rather die cleanly by a bullet than by the unknown terror of the phantom in the forest.

Contemplation is a luxury, requiring time and alternatives.

Move to a new country and you quickly see that visiting a place as a tourist, and actually moving there for good, are two very different things.

Settling into a new country is like getting used to a new pair of shoes. At first they pinch a little, but you like the way they look, so you carry on. The longer you have them, the more comfortable they become. Until one day without realizing it you reach a glorious plateau. Wearing those shoes is like wearing no shoes at all. The more scuffed they get, the more you love them and the more you can't imagine life without them.

Once in a very long time you come across a book that is far, far more than the ink, the glue and the paper, a book that seeps into your blood.