One of the pleasures of reading is seeing this alteration on the pages, and the way, by reading it, you have made the book yours.

Hawaii is not a state of mind, but a state of grace.

There are probably more annoying things than being hectored about African development by a wealthy Irish rock star in a cowboy hat, but I can't think of one at the moment.

The Australian Book of Etiquette is a very slim volume.

I cannot make my days longer so I strive to make them better.

You go away for a long time and return a different person - you never come all the way back.

You can't save the rhinos and you can't preserve a culture. I'm very pessimistic. Once it's gone, it's over.

All travel is circular. I had been jerked through Asia, making a parabola on one of the planet's hemispheres. After all, the grand tour is just the inspired man's way of heading home.

Travel is an attitude, a state of mind. It is not residence, it is motion.

Railways are irresistible bazaars, snaking along perfectly level no matter what the landscape, improving your mood with speed, and never upsetting your drink.

Tibet has a very proud people but it's culturally gone and overrun ever since the Chinese took over. It's like saving the rhino. When a species is endangered, it's gone.

Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness. All can know good as good only because there is evil.

Ugly or beautiful, it is the little creatures that make the world go round. We should celebrate and appreciated them in all their wonderful diversity.

There are still so many places on our planet that remain unexplored. I'd love to one day peel back the mystery and understand them.

A prison is a cross section of society in which every human strain is clearly revealed.

I am thankful for the kind treatment during my captivity and I ask God to accept me with mercy.

The task of organizing human happiness needs the active cooperation of man and woman: it cannot be relegated to one half of the world.

A pencil in my hand, its secret life / is charcoal, the wood already burnt, / a sacrifice.

Happiness just wasn't part of the job description back then. You tried to find a helpmate to keep the cold wind and dogs at bay. Happiness just wasn't part of the equation. Survival was.

When I get on the field, I feel unstoppable.

I often read nonfiction, and some of my ideas begin there.