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.

It is almost impossible to overemphasize the importance with which ancestry is held in the Middle East and North Africa.

Through bitter experience I have learned that it is best to promise little and then to reward hard work with generosity.

Where does one go in a tremendous city like Calcutta to find insider information? I recalled India's golden rule: do the opposite of what would be normal anywhere else.

Explorers like to pretend that they are a select breed of people with iron nerve and an ability to endure terrible hardship.

There's nothing like a pack of mules to give one a sense of entourage.

The rain of Madre de Dios is similar to that of the Amazon, but there is a petrifying aspect to it, as if it seeks to wound rather than to nurture.