Travelogue Quotes

“In fact, his travelogues spend amazingly little time discussing his blindness. Only one passage stands out for its frank discussion of his handicap and how it changed his worldview. In it, Holman was reminiscing about a few rendezvous from his past. Disarmingly, he admitted that he had no idea what his paramours looked like, or even whether they were homely. Moreover, he didn't care: by abandoning the standards of the sighted world, he argues, he could tap into a more divine and more authentic beauty. Hearing a woman's voice and feeling her caresses -- and then filling in what was missing with his own fancy -- gave him more pleasure than the mere sight of a women ever had, he said, a pleasure beyond reality. "Are there any who imagine," Holman asked, "that my loss of eyesight must necessarily deny me the enjoyment of such contemplation? How much more do I pity the mental darkness which could give rise to such an error.”

“Some trips are more than distance traveled in miles.”

“Because with time blocking out the bad, memory is always bound to be a bit naive and stupidly optimistic.”

“No matter what we have heard or read about a country, it is our own feeling that counts.”

“hidden in this huge city beats in unison the heart of a whole people seeking to find their route to a better future.”

“In America, they make a lot of fuss over little things.”

“...it was just a version of Rimbaud in Harar: the exile, a selfish beast with modest fantasies of power, secretly enjoying a life of beer drinking and scribbling and occasional mythomania in a nice climate where there were no interruptions, such as unwelcome letters or faxes or cell phones. It was an eccentric ideal, life lived off the map.¨”

“This (San Francisco) is the most beautiful city in America, Probably because it looks nothing like America”

“Clearly it's not all that pacific on the Pacific Ocean”