"For many habitual travelers, hating America is a given. Not just America at home, but the detritus of America abroad. The States are the font of all ignorant interference, all destabilizing of delicate cultures and economies. America is the cause and the symptom of what's going wrong. Of course the people on whose behalf travel...

"One of the cul-de-sacs that a travel writer has to continually watch out for is the pervasive assumption that poor people are intrinsically nicer than rich ones. It looks silly in print but on the ground, in the dust, it's more seductive. A fond belief that poverty is synonymous with dignity, that kindness, politeness and...

"One of the most important reasons to travel is to know what it feels like to be a foreigner." --A.A. Gill, AA Gill is Away (2003)

"The question you need to ask travel writers isn't 'where did you go to,' but 'where did you start from.' Observations of abroad often tell you more about the observer and his culture than the people and place he's commenting on." --A.A. Gill, AA Gill is Away (2003)

"The accepted snobbery is that the world was great until we all started going to have a look at it as traveler, tourists and refugees. Travel writing is also part of the illusion of global familiarity, the constant stream of images from over there that flood through the media combined with air travel, telephones, faxes,...

"Travel writing isn't really an exploration of where you've been, so much as an explanation of where you've come from. All journeys end up at the same address. Back home. Travelers don't write for the people they visit, but for the people they've left behind." --A.A. Gill, AA Gill is Away (2002)