Leslie Cockburn Quotes

I first travelled to Africa at the end of 1996 and was immediately captivated. I had planned on a three-week trip, and I ended up staying two months.

In order for me to write a scene, it's very important for me to see and experience everything with my own eyes, so yes, I was able to visit some remarkable houses and destinations while I was in China.

There are so many things I want to do. Like, I want to get an artist, a musician, a photographer, and a bunch of dancers that I know and just travel across Africa and just film it and just see what happens. Do and learn as much as I possibly can. Luckily, I have a lot more time.

I grew up in Rhodesia on my father's ranch and every year he used to take us on safari in some remote area of the wilderness.

But my estimates, for instance, based upon book information, were simply ridiculous, fanciful images of African attractions were soon dissipated, anticipated pleasures vanished, and all crude ideas began to resolve themselves into shape.

I've been to North Africa many times.

The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.

One of my favorite books is 'Armadillo Rodeo', and I got the idea from traveling to Texas and seeing armadillos.

The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.

Very few people are fortunate enough to walk through countries like Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, and I had seen them all. I had spoken to many on the street.

I've always enjoyed traveling and having experience with different cultures and different people. But it's also a wonderful thing to be able to benefit and enable research, not only in our country but around the world.

I've seen a lot of the United States, having stayed in so many different cities and towns for work.

It's been really nice to see different counties that I might never have visited before.

What you do on travel holiday is what your memories are based on. People want to do cool stuff, and this is what will shape your entire experience.

I feel as if I go to Africa, I may never come back. I'm just going to live with the animals and adopt an elephant, and it's going to be my friend.

Traveling is one of few zones of experience where you are not directly plugged into the world around you. You're not part of the society you're passing through.

Africa was the most exotic place I could conceive of - the end of the world - and I knew I would go there one day.

I did go on safari in Kenya when I was 17, with my mother, stepfather and little brother, and I kept a careful journal of the experience that was very helpful in terms of my sensory impressions of Africa. I have traveled quite a bit at distinct times in my life, though now that I have kids I've settled down.

Best thing that's happened this year? Maybe Hostel. It was a great experience. I loved it.

I work a lot in Africa: Texas and Africa have the best sunsets on the planet, that I've ever seen.

Travel makes a wise man better, and a fool worse.

We're only as big as our experiences.

Go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.

To open to civilization the only part of our globe where it has yet to penetrate, to pierce the darkness which envelops whole populations, it is I dare to say, a crusade…

I worked as a carpenter for a few years. I began writing. I wrote a book about my time in Africa - that came out in 1988 - called 'The Village of Waiting.'