“Contemplation is a luxury, requiring time and alternatives.”

“Time spent in India has a extraordinary effect on one. It acts as a barrier that makes the rest of the world seem unreal.”

“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.”

“For my father there was no sharper way to understand a country than by listening to its stories.”

“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.”

“In any case, a little danger is a small price to pay for ridding a place of tourists.”

“There's nothing quite like a good quest for getting your blood pumping.”