There's always a way if you're not in a hurry..

Travel is a state of mind. It has nothing to do with existence or the exotic. It is almost always an inner experience..

"Connected" is the triumphal cry these days. Connection has made people arrogant, impatient, hasty, and presumptuous... I don't doubt that instant co….

I'm not pessimistic about Africa. The cities just seem big and hopeless. But there's still a great green heart where there's possibility. There's hop….

It's only when you're alone that you realize where you are. You have nothing to fall back on except your own resources..

I have always disliked being a man. The whole idea of manhood in America is pitiful, in my opinion. This version of masculinity is a little like havi….

When I left Africa in 1966 it seemed to me to be a place that was developing, going in a particular direction, and I don't think that is the case now….

I think that love isn't what you think it is when you're in your twenties or even thirties..

If people are driving you around to look at animals, that's wonderful. That's educational, but it's not necessarily enlightening and you're not findi….

A national crisis, a political convulsion, is an opportunity, a gift to the traveler. Nothing is more revealing of a place to a stranger than troubl….

Going slowly [...] was the best way of being reminded that there is a relationship between Here and There, and that travel narrative was the story of….

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 i….

The wish to disappear sends many travelers away. If you are thoroughly sick of being kept waiting at home or at work, travel is perfect: let other pe….

I like the idea of isolation, I like the idea of solitude. You can be connected and have a phone and still be lonely..

Even if I were traveling with you, your trip would not be mine..

I can't predict how reading habits will change. But I will say that the greatest loss is the paper archive - no more a great stack of manuscripts, le….

The biggest surprise was that a country like Angola, that has so much money, that produces so much oil, would be in such a mess and so difficult to t….

People write about getting sick, they write about tummy trouble, they write about having to wait for a bus. They write about waiting. They write thre….

...a society without jaywalkers might indicate a society without artists..

I believe I have a sunny disposition, and am not naturally a grouch. It takes a lot of optimism, after all, to be a traveler..

The pleasure a reader gets is often equal to the pleasure a writer is given..