Writer

The usual channels of university studies or secretarial work did not appeal to me. I cherished difficult dreams through confidence in myself.

I am sure that instinctively we wish to be everything, to possess it - why cut the rose or marry the man, otherwise?

I wanted to learn a few foreign languages, and therefore I had to go abroad.

Words are impotent to describe certain emotions.

Shall we ever see the 10 million things of the universe simultaneously in order to be the all? I am convinced that to live is to travel towards the world's end.

The sooner we learn to be jointly responsible, the easier the sailing will be.

One of the main points about travelling is to develop in us a feeling of solidarity, of that oneness without which no better world is possible.

Humanity is made up of an infinity of different individuals. Each of us travels for motives exclusively his own.

One travels to run away from routine, that dreadful routine that kills all imagination and all our capacity for enthusiasm.

We want to feel that this earth is all ours, like our parents' house when we were children.

Every time I took a long leave from home, I felt as if I were going to conquer the world. Or rather, take possession of what is my birthright, my inheritance.

When I crossed Asia with my friend Peter Fleming, we spoke to no one but each other during many months, and we covered exactly the same ground. Nevertheless my journey differed completely from his.

I had to live in the desert before I could understand the full value of grass in a green ditch.

You do not travel if you are afraid of the unknown, you travel for the unknown, that reveals you with yourself.

The state of minds vary according to the angle under which one examines them.

Not only does travel give us a new system of reckoning, it also brings to the fore unknown aspects of our own self. Our consciousness being broadened and enriched, we shall judge ourselves more correctly.

That idea of escapism... these words could sum up my life.

Those who appreciate the ways of simple tribes, where every activity is direct and immediately understandable, are able to live among them.

Only when one is able to grasp wideness can one possess it.

I refuse to imprison our acts in the rigid mould of sentences.