I had seen a herd of Elephant travelling through dense native forest. . . pacing along as if they had an appointment at the end of the world.
In Morocco, before you even get to the matter of the sale, you have to coax the owner to sell.
With an enthusiastic team you can achieve almost anything.
A journey, I reflected, is of no merit unless it has tested you.
Respect was one thing. Survival was another. It was important that I kept my priorities in the right order.
Real travel is not about the highlights with which you dazzle your friends once you're home. It's about the loneliness, the solitude, the evenings spent by yourself, pining to be somewhere else. Those are the moments of true value. You feel half proud of them and half ashamed and you hold them to your heart.
Calcutta's the only city I know where you are actively encouraged to stop strangers at random for a quick chat.
Actually I never did stand up. I'm not that funny.
Every church is a stone on the grave of a god-man: it does not want him to rise up again under any circumstances.
I realized my family was funny, because nobody ever wanted to leave our house.
There is nothing more satisfying than having a sentence fall into place in a way you feel is right, and then adding another one and then another one. It's extraordinarily satisfying.