Quote

For my father there was no sharper way to understand a country than by listening to its stories.

Tahir Shah

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Tahir Shah
Age: 57
Born: 1966
Born: November 16
Author
Comedian
Explorer
Journalist
Novelist
Writer
London
England
Stories
Country
Way
Sharper
Listening
Understand
Father

More quotes by Tahir Shah

Image
The taste for glory can make ordinary men behave in extraordinary ways.
Tahir Shah
Image
I was no longer troubled when he pulled out a machete in a crowded bar, tried to pick up schoolgirls, or threatened to scalp us, then rip off our heads and scoop out our brains.
Tahir Shah
Image
The very fact that a Frenchman was prepared, after two minutes of conversation, to be so friendly towards anyone, especially one who had come from England, made me restless.
Tahir Shah
Image
Any man who has ever led an army, an expedition, or a group of Boy Scouts has sadism in his bones.
Tahir Shah
Image
In Morocco, before you even get to the matter of the sale, you have to coax the owner to sell.
Tahir Shah
Image
Once in a very long time you come across a book that is far, far more than the ink, the glue and the paper, a book that seeps into your blood.
Tahir Shah
Image
Most journeys have a clear beginning, but on some the ending is less well-defined. The question is, at what point do you bite your lip and head for home?
Tahir Shah
Image
Explorers like to pretend that they are a select breed of people with iron nerve and an ability to endure terrible hardship.
Tahir Shah
Image
One senses that, in these conditions, no amount of wet-wiping could bring true hygiene.
Tahir Shah
Image
To Succeed, you must reach for the stars, and let your imagination find its own path
Tahir Shah
Image
On a hard jungle journey nothing is so important as having a team you can trust.
Tahir Shah
Image
During the days I felt myself slipping into a kind of madness. Solitary confinement has an astonishing effect on the mind. The trip was to stay calm and keep myself occupied. I spent hours working out how to break free. But trying to escape would have been instant suicide.
Tahir Shah
Image
I believe that Marrakech ought to be earned as a destination. The journey is the preparation for the experience. Reaching it too fast derides it, makes it a little less easy to understand.
Tahir Shah
Image
Where does one go in a tremendous city like Calcutta to find insider information? I recalled India's golden rule: do the opposite of what would be normal anywhere else.
Tahir Shah
Image
In India an explanation is often more confusing than what prompted it.
Tahir Shah
Image
My father used to say that stories are part of the most precious heritage of mankind.
Tahir Shah
Image
Spend sixteen weeks in the jungle and you being to question your own sanity, especially when you are the one goading everyone else ahead.
Tahir Shah
Image
There is nothing quite as unpleasant as wearing a pair of briefs which have been trailed through a Calcutta courtyard. Nothing, that is, except having one's elbows and knees lacerated by unseen slivers of glass and discarded razor blades.
Tahir Shah
Image
Move to a new country and you quickly see that visiting a place as a tourist, and actually moving there for good, are two very different things.
Tahir Shah
Image
Buy a house in a foreign country and, it seems, that anything which can go wrong usually does.
Tahir Shah