“At this point, I see the unfortunate recipient of this impromptu history lecture begin to doze and I move on to my next unwilling victim.”

“On the flight back from Korea, somewhere between the silicone implant chicken and the latest Jennifer Lopez shitefest, I try to make sense of my Korean experience.”

“On the whole, I try to avoid confrontations with deadly snakes.”

“I'd seen more menace in a Care Bear.”

“Whereas the tourist generally hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or months, the traveler, belonging no more to one place than to the next, moves slowly, over periods of years, from one part of the earth to another.”

“I'm of the glamorous ladiesAt whose beckoning history shook.But you are a man, and see only my pan,So I stay at home with a book.”

“I want to be part of your story. I want your story to rearrange the symbols in my mind. I want your voice to be my voice.”