John Gimlette

I'd like to write fiction. Perhaps at some stage.

— John Gimlette

I don't want to sell other people trips! I want to be there!

— John Gimlette

I am certainly very pro-Europe.

— John Gimlette

One does have to learn to travel with a degree of humility and that reflected in writing and personality.

— John Gimlette

Radio is very popular [in Britain], but it doesn't connect us in the same way. It seems to have this community function.

— John Gimlette

I am no apologist for Fidel's [Castro] regime. It is, after all, a totalitarian regime. So I would like to see that…

— John Gimlette

Originally I wanted to be a diplomat, and by attrition I started giving up that idea.

— John Gimlette

I have dipped into Ian McEwan and so on. I tend not to stick with one writer. But I dip in here…

— John Gimlette

I would love to write a book that opens people's eyes to the more interesting side.

— John Gimlette

I was writing the Paraguay book, a Paragauyan told me that only five thousand people in Paraguay read.

— John Gimlette

A lot of books are sold and given away as presents. But who actually reads and enjoy reading?

— John Gimlette

I often think I would like to come even closer to home and write about somewhere like Wales, for example - which…

— John Gimlette

Diplomacy was what I wanted to do. From really quite an early age and I think I had a false impression that…

— John Gimlette

The noise that we can expect in the future will only increase and we'll be wishing for rural Portugal or something like…

— John Gimlette

I am sure you have met diplomats; they probably travel far less than you do. Okay, they get to know a place…

— John Gimlette

Argentina is really in a different category because they butchered all their Indian or indigenous people in the war of the desert…

— John Gimlette

I feel better off doing what I know how to do. I feel a strong element of fictional style in travel writing…

— John Gimlette

American travel writing is very healthy. I'm always flicking through the reviews and I see plenty of travel writing - and an…

— John Gimlette

That's more about lifestyle [Peter Mayles], living abroad. It's about buying a donkey and house in south France, and that's a slightly…

— John Gimlette

When McDonald's opened up in Moscow - I happened to be there when it opened and wandered in. And the Russians were…

— John Gimlette

I'll always love Paraguay. It's this most exotic place configured out of the imagination, the whole country.Paraguay will always be a special…

— John Gimlette

I have a nice little idea from some people I met there who are now in their seventies, and I want to…

— John Gimlette

We don't really listen to what the other person is saying. We have gotten used to information being in such a concentrated…

— John Gimlette

I slightly feel, having written Paraguay and Newfoundland - and both of them have developed eccentricities through isolation - I am quite…

— John Gimlette

There is a very big difference between American and British travel journalism, and that's this whole business of the assisted or freebie…

— John Gimlette

There is a whole genre of funny travel writers - that's very popular. There's Bill Bryson and people who follow that route…

— John Gimlette

What I really like about Cuba is that you can go into a local bar in a provincial town and you'll get…

— John Gimlette

Lawrence Millman is a favorite writer of mine. He did a travels on the trail of the Vikings.

— John Gimlette

Buenos Aires is my favorite city. I think it's fantastic - but is a troubled, sort of psychologically troubled city.

— John Gimlette

I think one should express opinions and these books are relatively opinionated. They would be a bit dry without it.

— John Gimlette

This terrible frustration that we so often feel in the West in not being able to articulate and express ourselves.

— John Gimlette

I tend to prefer traveling in the Third World countries. Like Ethiopia. Or Eritrea.

— John Gimlette

In both places [Paraguay and Newfoundland] people rise despite everything - both are pretty tough environments.

— John Gimlette

I am always surprised when people do get upset. Perhaps its just the nutty people who write to newspapers who get upset.

— John Gimlette

It never stops me from saying what I want to say about Ethiopia, the fact that a tour company is paid for…

— John Gimlette

I have real fears for Cuba based on the South American experience. Where you have had such a stern regime, as Fidel's…

— John Gimlette

My parents probably feel closer to the U.S. They feel America came to our rescue in the war and all that sort…

— John Gimlette

People my age and younger do think much more towards Europe. We have to fill the gap sometime - we can't think…

— John Gimlette

I don't therefore know how to write for the big papers. It must be kids - students - and retired people. And…

— John Gimlette

In Western Civilization - America and Britain - if you see people talking and it becomes an argument and voices are raised,…

— John Gimlette