"Contemplation is a luxury, requiring time and alternatives."
- Tahir Shah
"Time spent in India has a extraordinary effect on one. It acts as a barrier that makes the rest of the world seem unreal."
"The inertia of a jungle village is a dangerous thing. Before you know it your whole life has slipped by and you are still waiting there."
"The rain of Madre de Dios is similar to that of the Amazon, but there is a petrifying aspect to it, as if it seeks to wound rather than to nurture."
"There can be few situations more fearful than breaking down in darkness on the highway leading to Casablanca. I have rarely felt quite so vulnerable or alone."
"Real terror is a crippling experience. You sweat so much that your skin goes all wrinkly like when you've been in the bath all afternoon. And then the scent of your sweat changes. It smells like cat p..."
"Any man who has ever led an army, an expedition, or a group of Boy Scouts has sadism in his bones."
"Once in a very long time you come across a book that is far, far more than the ink, the glue and the paper, a book that seeps into your blood."
"When I am about to embark on a difficult journey, I comfort myself by reading the accounts of the great nineteenth-century travellers, men like Stanley, Burton, Speke, Burckhardt and Barth."
"For me, a journey to Damascus is an amazing hunt from beginning to end, a slice through layers of history in search of treasure."