“As I saw it, a little threatening was a good thing. It kept the men on their toes.”

“Respect was one thing. Survival was another. It was important that I kept my priorities in the right order.”

“At the dealership, I pulled out the sieve and toyed with it threateningly. When the salesman was ready for me, I held it up, told him I was not a tourist and demanded a large discount.”

“I was no longer troubled when he pulled out a machete in a crowded bar, tried to pick up schoolgirls, or threatened to scalp us, then rip off our heads and scoop out our brains.”

“Move to a new country and you quickly see that visiting a place as a tourist, and actually moving there for good, are two very different things.”

“[T]hrough bitter experience I have learned that it is best to promise little and then to reward hard work with generosity.”

“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.”