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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

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Tahir Shah
Age: 58
Born: 1966
Born: November 16
Author
Comedian
Explorer
Journalist
Novelist
Writer
London
England
Little
Journey
Believe
Ought
Less
Marrakech
Understand
Earned
Easy
Destination
Experience
Preparation
Makes
Reaching
Littles
Fast

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For me, nature is something you watch on the Discovery Channel, or on the evening news -- as you learn how much more of it's been savaged to make way for the Blackberry realm that is my home
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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.
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It is almost impossible to overemphasize the importance with which ancestry is held in the Middle East and North Africa.
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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.
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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?
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For my father there was no sharper way to understand a country than by listening to its stories.
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Real travel is not about the highlights with which you dazzle your friends once you're home. It's about the loneliness, the solitude, the evenings spent by yourself, pining to be somewhere else. Those are the moments of true value. You feel half proud of them and half ashamed and you hold them to your heart.
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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.
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Stories are not like the real world they aren't held back by what we know is false or true. What's important is how a story makes you feel inside.
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The inertia of a jungle village is a dangerous thing. Before you know it your whole life has slipped by and you are still waiting there.
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One senses that, in these conditions, no amount of wet-wiping could bring true hygiene.
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Respect was one thing. Survival was another. It was important that I kept my priorities in the right order.
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In India everything has a use and a value.
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There can be few situations more fearful than breaking down in darkness on the highway leading to Casablanca. I have rarely felt quite so vulnerable or alone.
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