The only book by a modern president that bears serious comparison with Obama's 'Dreams From My Father' is Jimmy Carter's short campaign autobiography, 'Why Not the Best?,' published in 1975. — Jonathan Raban Copy Share Image
We need more urgently than architectural utopias, ingenious traffic disposal systems, or ecological programmes to comprehend the nature of citizenship, to make serious imaginative assessment of that special relationship between the self and the city; its unique plasticity,… — Jonathan Raban Copy Share Image
All this piling up of one technology on top of another-railroad on steamboat, interstate highway on railroad, hydroelectric dam on watermill-had reduced the Mississippi… — Jonathan Raban Copy Share Image
Life, as the most ancient of all metaphors insists, is a journey; and the travel book, in its deceptive simulation of the journey's fits… — Jonathan Raban Copy Share Image
Inaugurals conventionally start with a history lesson and finish with a prayer. — Jonathan Raban Copy Share Image
When New Yorkers tell one about the dangers of their city, the muggings, the dinner parties to which no one turns up for fear… — Jonathan Raban Copy Share Image
My new city [Seattle] and its hinterland felt deceptively homely. Their similar latitude gave them the angular light and lingering evenings I was used… — Jonathan Raban Copy Share Image
At night, what you see is a city, because all you see is lights. By day, it doesn't look like a city at all.… — Jonathan Raban Copy Share Image
Because Washington state now votes by mail, elections here tend to play out, at an agonizingly slow speed, over many days and, sometimes, weeks. — Jonathan Raban Copy Share Image
The only nation I've ever been tempted to feel really racist about are the Swiss - a whole country of phobic hand washers living… — Jonathan Raban Copy Share Image
The [travel] writer, looking back at the journey from a distance of a year or two (or three), is a different character from the… — Jonathan Raban Copy Share Image
The mythical America?that marvellous, heroic, sentimental landwas an object of faith. It challenged you to make the believer's leap over the rude facts at… — Jonathan Raban Copy Share Image
Over emphatic negatives always suggest that what is being denied may be what is really being asserted. — Jonathan Raban Copy Share Image
![“My new city [Seattle] and its hinterland felt deceptively homely. Their similar latitude gave them the angular light and lingering evenings I was used to. Their damp marine weather, blowing in from the southwest, came in the right direction. When the mountains are hidden under a low sky, one might…” quote by Jonathan Raban](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/8e6/jonathan-raban-11981_britain_my-new-city-seattle-and-its-hinterland-f_363879.jpg)
![“The [travel] writer, looking back at the journey from a distance of a year or two (or three), is a different character from the hapless character who undertook the trip: wise after the event, with the leisure to tease out meanings from the experience that the distracted traveler never had, and…” quote by Jonathan Raban](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e55/jonathan-raban-11981_alter-ego_the-travel-writer-looking-back-at-the-jo_461527.jpg)
