“Stories are not like the real world; they aren't held back by what we know is false or true. What's important is how a story makes you feel inside.”

“My father never told us how the stories worked. He didn't reveal the layers, the nuggets of information, the fragments of truth and fantasy. He didn't need to -- because, given the right conditions, the stories activated, sowing themselves.”

“Stories are a communal currency of humanity.”

“It is almost impossible to overemphasize the importance with which ancestry is held in the Middle East and North Africa.”

“Real travel is not about the highlights with which you dazzle your friends once you're home. It's about the loneliness, the solitude, the evenings spent by yourself, pining to be somewhere else. Those are the moments of true value. You feel half proud of them and half ashamed and you hold them to your heart.”

“Where does one go in a tremendous city like Calcutta to find insider information? I recalled India's golden rule: do the opposite of what would be normal anywhere else.”

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