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Occasionally I find a travel book that is both illuminating and entertaining, where vivid writing and research replace self-indulgence and sloppy prose.

Good travel books, like travel itself, open the door to new worlds. In the strongest works the author's vision becomes our own, especially if his or her subject is a distant destination.

Travelling is a great time to catch up on my reading. It's hard falling asleep in new places, but a good book always makes it easier.

I read a lot when I'm travelling and always have a couple of books on the go.

I want to be a writer you can always depend on for a good read during your vacation, during your flight, during a time in your life when you want to forget the world around you.

Travel books are, by and large, boring. They lodge uncomfortably between fact, fiction and autobiography.

The travel book is a convenient metaphor for life, with its optimistic beginning or departure, its determined striving, and its reflective conclusion. Journeys change travellers just as a good travel book can change readers.

I'm an active author: I travel to give readings and talks, although I know it's risky.

I wouldn't say that I'm a travel novelist, but rather a novelist who travels - and who uses travel as a background for finding stories of places.