“In the world of the Machiguenga, sadness could be equated with anger, and anger was a perilous emotion, by which a foreigner could lose his life.”

“The last thing we wanted was for the Machiguenga to be sad again. Sadness appeared to bring out their violence.”

“Buy a house in a foreign country and, it seems, that anything which can go wrong usually does.”

“A cross between a foreign legion boot-camp and a secret-society initiation ritual, the ordeals were grounded in pain. One thing was obvious: the agenda, which was dedicated to grave discomfort, had been drawn up by a passionate sadist.”

“As far as Samson was concerned I was just another foreigner in pursuit of a lunatic quest.”

“The desert was bad, but nothing could compare with the horrors of a tropical rain forest.”

“One senses that, in these conditions, no amount of wet-wiping could bring true hygiene.”