In the city one clings to nostalgic and unreal signs of community, takes forced refuge in codes, badges and coteries; the city's life, of surfaces and locomotion, usually seems too dangerous and demanding to live through with any confidence. — 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)
