“It is always sad to leave a place to which one knows one will never return. Such are the melancolies du voyage: perhaps they are one of the most rewarding things about traveling.”

“One sad thing about this world is that the acts that take the most out of you are usually the ones that people will never know about.(from 'Celestial Navigation')”

“One of the things that everybody knows about space travel but never mentions is its aphrodisiac quality.”

“For those who pass it without entering, the city is one thing; it is another for those who are trapped by it and never leave. There is the city where you arrive for the first time; and there is another city which you leave never to return. Each deserves a different name; perhaps I have already spoken of Irene under other names; perhaps I have spoken only of Irene.”

“To be free means always leaving...or returning to a place where leaves never fall.”

“When I was done traveling, I returned convinced of one thing: we're nothing.”