"What raises travel writing to literature is not what the writer brings to a place, but what a place brings out of the writer." --William Zinsser, in They Went: The Art and Craft of Travel Writing (1991)

"The act of writing organizes how I spend my time when I arrive in a place. It gives me information, concentrates my thoughts, and opens doors I wouldn't otherwise be allowed to knock on." --William Zinsser, “The Road to Timbuktu: Why I Travel,” American Scholar , Winter 1997

"I want to know what it feels like to actually be in a place that I've always heard about, to be part of its daily atmosphere and rhythm. I don't need to see every famous sight, every last mosque and museum; art is all around me, wherever I look: intricately woven baskets in an Asian...