“We all have our patchwork ideas of India, our notions and opinions and prejudicesoften fallacious and absurdof this enormous, disparate country, which, as I take pleasure in reminding newcomers, bi...”

“a good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving" Taoist dictum quoted by Sam Miller”

“Sex can be used either for self-affirmation or for self-transcendence either to intensify the ego and consolidate the social persona by some kind of conspicuous embarkation and heroic conquest, or...”

“He didn't know all that much about how the machinery worked anyway. Such knowledge was for specialists. In war, as in love, he was a fearless, happy-go-lucky adventurer.”

“If she did experience sex--or something close to it--in high school, I'm sure it would have been less out of sexual desire or love than literary curiosity.”