Ella Maillart

Only when one is able to grasp wideness can one possess it.

One travels to run away from routine, that dreadful routine that kills all imagination and all our capacity for enthusiasm.

Others are keen to see if natives other than us live better than we do, without heat in pipes, ice in boxes, sunshine in bulbs, music on disks, or images gliding over a pale screen.

It took me realizing that a broken heart has never actually killed anyone to find the courage to ask for what I want, in just about every situation. That was part of my own growing up.

All true language is incomprehensible, like the chatter of a beggar's teeth.

I was always the classroom clown, and the teachers allowed me a certain latitude. The assemblies were good, and the headmaster used to tell little stories; I loved the idea of communal storytelling.