In India everything has a use and a value.

— Tahir Shah

In moments of great uncertainty on my travels, I have always felt that something is protecting me, that I will come to no harm.

— Tahir Shah

In Morocco," said Osman, "word spreads like a fire tearing through the depths of Hell.

— Tahir Shah

Inscribed on it was a verse from the Quatrains of Omar Khayyam, the eleventh-century Persian mystic. Reading the words aloud I prepared for a most amazing journey:The sages who have compassed sea and land, Their secret to search out and understand, My mind misgives me if they ever solve The scheme on which the universe is planned.

— Tahir Shah

In some peculiar way, indeed, the rules were now beginning to seem quite logical. It was then I knew that I had been in India long enough.

— Tahir Shah

In some warped way, having an embalmed body with us made perfect sense.

— Tahir Shah

In the world of the Machiguenga, sadness could be equated with anger, and anger was a perilous emotion, by which a foreigner could lose his life.

— Tahir Shah

I struggled to think pure thoughts, as Hector sucked out my psyche with his eyes.

— Tahir Shah

It is almost impossible to overemphasize the importance with which ancestry is held in the Middle East and North Africa.

— Tahir Shah

It was an awkward moment. We were burning down our host's house, a situation which any guest seeks to avoid.

— Tahir Shah