John Gimlette
When McDonald's opened up in Moscow - I happened to be there when it opened and wandered in. And the Russians were queuing three times around the block to get in. And when they got to the head of the queue, they'd go, "I'll have a Big Mac please. Have you the cheese and the rolls? And do you have the meat and do you have the salad?" And everybody asks this because they are so used to things being awful that it took them a quarter of an hour to order a Big Mac.Collection: Block
What I really like about Cuba is that you can go into a local bar in a provincial town and you'll get jazz played at the highest standard - played often a cappella, or certainly with no amplification or whatever. Even if you are not knowledgeable about music, and I am not, you can find yourself really enjoying it.Collection: Finding Yourself
I tend to prefer traveling in the Third World countries. Like Ethiopia. Or Eritrea.Collection: Country
I have dipped into Ian McEwan and so on. I tend not to stick with one writer. But I dip in here and there.Collection: Here And There
One does have to learn to travel with a degree of humility and that reflected in writing and personality.Collection: Writing
I realize how much [Mark] Twain fabricated things. I like it very much, but it's only half true. And it shows what he was trying to do, which was just entertain. Which he does very successfully, though the humor is almost dated now.Collection: Trying
I am always surprised when people do get upset. Perhaps its just the nutty people who write to newspapers who get upset.Collection: Writing
I find the public reaction to writing - it's fascinating in this modern age. Of course people are able to interact with me and email me, and I get quite a few I suppose.Collection: Writing
I was writing the Paraguay book, a Paragauyan told me that only five thousand people in Paraguay read.Collection: Book
I was talking to my publisher in Britain and was told here we are - we are sixty million people and we reckon only four hundred thousand people in Britain really read.Collection: Talking