When I was in the Peace Corps I never made a phone call. I was in Central Africa I didn't make a phone call for two years. I was in Uganda for another four years and I didn't make a phone call. So for six years I didn't make a phone call, but I wrote letters, I wrote short stories, I wrote books.

You define a good flight by negatives: you didn't get hijacked, you didn't crash, you didn't throw up, you weren't late, you weren't nauseated by the food. So you are grateful.

Tourists don't know where they've been, travelers don't know where they're going.

Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.

Extensive traveling induces a feeling of encapsulation, and travel, so broadening at first, contracts the mind.