Anyone telling about his travels must be a liar, . . . for if a traveler doesn't visit his narrative with the spirit and techniques of fiction, no on….

I find nothing more depressing than optimism..

Travel sharpens the senses. Abroad one feels, sees and hears things in an abnormal way..

Wars damage the civilian society as much as they damage the enemy. Soldiers never get over it..

A guide book is addressed to those who plan to follow the traveler, doing what he has done, but more selectively. A travel book, in its purest, is ad….

"Those who fought know a secret about themselves, and it is not very nice." ... They have experienced secretly and privately their natural human impu….

What someone doesn't want you to publish is journalism; all else is publicity..

And the ideal travel writer is consumed not just with a will to know. He is also moved by a powerful will to teach..

Anybody who notices unpleasant facts in the have-a-nice-day world we live in is going to be designated a curmudgeon..

I am working on a book urging the beating to death of baby whales using the dead bodies of baby seals..

There is no Apocalypse..

The worst thing about war was the sitting around and wondering what you were doing morally..

Irony is the attendant of hope and the fuel of hope is innocence..

Most people who seek attention and regard by announcing that they're writing a novel are actually so devoid of narrative talent that they can't hold ….

So many bright futures consigned to the ashes of the past.So many dreams lost in the madness that had engulfed us.Except for a few widely scattered s….

The past is not the present: pretending it is corrupts art and thus both rots the mind and shrivels the imagination and conscience..

To get home you had to end the war. To end the war was the reason you fought it. The only reason..

Travel at its truest is thus an ironic experience..

Those who fought know a secret about themselves, and it is not very nice..

Understanding the past requires pretending that you don't know the present..

Before the development of tourism, travel was conceived to be like study, and it's fruits were considered to be the adornment of the mind and the for….