Bombay is a city where gossip is treated as a commodity.

— Tahir Shah

But in Africa bureaucrats are usually too proud to accept a bribe, something I admire when I'm not the one being arrested.

— Tahir Shah

Calcutta's the only city I know where you are actively encouraged to stop strangers at random for a quick chat.

— Tahir Shah

Close your senses and the imagination comes alive. It's inside us all, dulled by endless television reruns and by a society that reins in fantasy as something not to be trusted, something to be purged. But it's in there, deep inside, a spark waiting to set a touch-paper alight.

— Tahir Shah

Contemplation is a luxury, requiring time and alternatives.

— Tahir Shah

During the days I felt myself slipping into a kind of madness. Solitary confinement has an astonishing effect on the mind. The trip was to stay calm and keep myself occupied. I spent hours working out how to break free. But trying to escape would have been instant suicide.

— Tahir Shah

Enlightenment, and the death which comes before it, is the primary business of Varanasi.

— Tahir Shah

Experience has taught me the power of trophies. You may have every knick-knack and useless contraption ever devised, but while they weigh you down, a simple trophy can go a long, long way.

— Tahir Shah

Exploration is a dirty game.

— Tahir Shah

Explorers like to pretend that they are a select breed of people with iron nerve and an ability to endure terrible hardship.

— Tahir Shah