“Only desperation can account for what the Chinese do in the name of ‘medicine.’”

I’m a big believer in winging it. I’m a big believer that you’re never going to find the perfect city travel experience or the perfect meal without a constant willingness to experience a bad one.

I could eat bloody Elvis – if you put enough vinegar on him.

It’s an irritating reality that many places and events defy description.

If you’re twenty-two, physically fit, hungry to learn and be better, I urge you to travel – as far and as widely as possible. Sleep on floors if you have to. Find out how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them – wherever you go.

He doesn’t yearn for a better, different life than the one he has – because he knows he’s got a home in this one.

The journey is part of the experience – an expression of the seriousness of one’s intent. One doesn’t take the A train to Mecca.

I am in no way supportive of hunting for trophies or sport – would never do it and don’t like it that others do. But if you kill it, then eat it, it’s fine.

Under ‘Reasons for Leaving Last Job’, never give the real reason, unless it’s money or ambition.

No one understands and appreciates the American Dream of hard work leading to material rewards better than a non-American.

Writing anything is a treason of sorts.

Good food is very often, even most often, simple food.

Without new ideas, success can become stale.

Open your mind, get up off the couch, move.

The idea of America is a mutt-culture, isn’t it? Who the hell is America if not everybody else?

I had field experience, a vocabulary, and a criminal mind. I was a danger to myself and others.

I’m not going anywhere. I hope. It’s been an adventure. We took some casualties over the years. Things got broken. Things got lost. But I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.