Quote

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

John Gimlette

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

John Gimlette
Age: 61
Born: 1963
Born: January 1
Author
Journalist
Thinking
False
Travel
Early
Quite
Age
Wanted
Equals
Really
Diplomacy
Think
Impression

More quotes by John Gimlette

Image
American travel writing is very healthy. I'm always flicking through the reviews and I see plenty of travel writing - and an impressive line up and continual demand.
John Gimlette
Image
I am sure you have met diplomats they probably travel far less than you do. Okay, they get to know a place very intensely - sometimes only the capitol city.
John Gimlette
Image
My parents probably feel closer to the U.S. They feel America came to our rescue in the war and all that sort of thing. And for their generation the war still goes on. We still save food and little bits get scraped off and boiled out the next day.
John Gimlette
Image
I slightly feel, having written Paraguay and Newfoundland - and both of them have developed eccentricities through isolation - I am quite relieved to be back in France and Germany, and I want people to enjoy these books for the writing and not because they feel they can laugh - some will laugh - at these eccentric places, that's not what I intend.
John Gimlette
Image
A lot of books are sold and given away as presents. But who actually reads and enjoy reading?
John Gimlette
Image
I have real fears for Cuba based on the South American experience. Where you have had such a stern regime, as Fidel's [Castro], there is no culture of politics.
John Gimlette
Image
I think one should express opinions and these books are relatively opinionated. They would be a bit dry without it.
John Gimlette
Image
Originally I wanted to be a diplomat, and by attrition I started giving up that idea.
John Gimlette
Image
This terrible frustration that we so often feel in the West in not being able to articulate and express ourselves.
John Gimlette
Image
I was talking to my publisher in Britain and was told here we are - we are sixty million people and we reckon only four hundred thousand people in Britain really read.
John Gimlette
Image
I wonder if this reason is partly geographical, that talk radio is so much more successful in North America than in Britain? People who are very remote - I'm thinking of Newfoundland - feel very connected though the radio.
John Gimlette
Image
The noise that we can expect in the future will only increase and we'll be wishing for rural Portugal or something like that.
John Gimlette
Image
I have a nice little idea from some people I met there who are now in their seventies, and I want to tell their story about the revolution through the eyes of musicians, in fact. The '59 Revolution. And what has happened to them since. It's very much a Cuban story. They haven't fared too well.
John Gimlette
Image
I am always surprised to go into a bar in Boston and three televisions are playing different channels, all at once. We are constantly surprised by this noise and television. It means that's what we are going to get, because we always get everything eventually.
John Gimlette
Image
I would love to write a book that opens people's eyes to the more interesting side.
John Gimlette
Image
I don't want to pay good money to hear ordinary people's lunatic views. Most of the people who phone in are [lunatics] - certainly in Britain.
John Gimlette
Image
In both places [Paraguay and Newfoundland] people rise despite everything - both are pretty tough environments.
John Gimlette
Image
I am no apologist for Fidel's [Castro] regime. It is, after all, a totalitarian regime. So I would like to see that change.
John Gimlette
Image
Paraguayans have no Italian blood and are half Guarani [Indian] blood. And the Chileans call themselves the English of South America, which actually couldn't be further from the truth.
John Gimlette
Image
I don't want to sell other people trips! I want to be there!
John Gimlette