If I examine the circumstances which inspired me to write - and this is not mere self-indulgence, but a desire for accuracy - I see clearly that the starting point of it all for me was war.

Next quotes

• J. M. G. Le Clezio:

  To act: that is what the writer would like to be able to do, above all. To act, rather than to bear

• J. M. G. Le Clezio:

  The writer, the poet, the novelist, are all creators. This does not mean that they invent language;

• J. M. G. Le Clezio:

  Language is the most extraordinary invention in the history of humanity, the one which came before

• J. M. G. Le Clezio:

  I have the feeling of being a very small item on this planet, and literature enables me to express

• J. M. G. Le Clezio:

  The novelist, he's not a philosopher, not a technician of spoken language. He's someone who writes,

• J. M. G. Le Clezio:

  Reading is a free practice. I think the readers are free to begin by the books where they want to.

• J. Maarten Troost:

  You can read and read, but nothing eclipses experience.

• J. Maarten Troost:

  The gift of sobriety is clarity and a sense of connection - and travel only enhances that.

• J. Maarten Troost:

  There's a reason that there are oodles of young Aussies, Germans, Japanese, even Chinese backpacker

• J. Maarten Troost:

  Few things are more enjoyable than lingering over the atlas and plotting a trip.