“Usually, there is nothing more pleasing that returning to a place where you have endured hardship.”

“Explorers like to pretend that they are a select breed of people with iron nerve and an ability to endure terrible hardship.”

“On a hard jungle journey nothing is so important as having a team you can trust.”

“As far as I was concerned, a little danger of head-shrinking is a small price to pay in return for a people who have remained true to an ancient code.”

“Settling into a new country is like getting used to a new pair of shoes. At first they pinch a little, but you like the way they look, so you carry on. The longer you have them, the more comfortable they become. Until one day without realizing it you reach a glorious plateau. Wearing those shoes is like wearing no shoes at all. The more scuffed they get, the more you love them and the more you can't imagine life without them.”

“There is nothing quite as unpleasant as wearing a pair of briefs which have been trailed through a Calcutta courtyard. Nothing, that is, except having one's elbows and knees lacerated by unseen slivers of glass and discarded razor blades.”

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