Death is an endless night so awful to contemplate that it can make us love life and value it with such passion that it may be the ultimate cause of all joy and all art.

There are probably more annoying things than being hectored about African development by a wealthy Irish rock star in a cowboy hat, but I can't think of one at the moment.

The Japanese have perfected good manners and made them indistinguishable from rudeness.

The Australian Book of Etiquette is a very slim volume.

It is usually expensive and lonely to be principled.

Hawaii is not a state of mind, but a state of grace.

Gain a modest reputation for being unreliable and you will never be asked to do a thing.

Extensive traveling induces a feeling of encapsulation, and travel, so broadening at first, contracts the mind.

Tourists don't know where they've been, travelers don't know where they're going.

Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.

Fiction gives us a second chance that life denies us.

The Peace Corps is a sort of Howard Johnson's on the main drag into maturity.

You define a good flight by negatives: you didn't get hijacked, you didn't crash, you didn't throw up, you weren't late, you weren't nauseated by the food. So you are grateful.

Writing is pretty crummy on the nerves.