"Death is an endless night so awful to contemplate that it can make us love life and value it with such passion that it may be the ultimate cause of all joy and all art."

“You must not judge people by their country. In South America, it is always wise to judge people by their altitude.”

“Assigning human personalities to animals is the chief trait of the pet owner—the doting dog-lover with his baby talk, the smug stay-at-home with a fat lump of fur on her lap who says, "Me, I'm a cat person," and the granny who puts her nose against the tin cage and makes kissing noises at her parakeet. Their affection is often tinged with a sense of superiority. Deer and duck hunters never talk this way about their prey, though big game hunters— Hemingway is the classic example — often sentimentalize the creatures they blow to bits and then lovingly stuff to hang on the wall.”

“I have always disliked being a man. The whole idea of manhood in America is pitiful, in my opinion. This version of masculinity is a little like having to wear an ill-fitting coat for one's entire life .”

“In many ways connection has been disastrous. We have confused information with ideas (of which there are too few. I found out much more about the world and myself by being unconnected.”

“Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.”

“The Peace Corps is a sort of Howard Johnson’s on the main drag into maturity.”