Tahir Shah Quotes - Page 3

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Country Fathers Fear Home Imagination Journey Team

These days no one challenges us,' he said. 'And because there is no challenge, there is no reason to work hard. And with no reason to work hard, we have all become lazy.

Tahir Shah

Hard Work, Challenges, Lazy

Tahir Shah (2009). “In Arabian Nights”, p.145, Random House

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Settling into a new country is like getting used to a new pair of shoes. At first they pinch a little, but you like the way they look, so you carry on. The longer you have them, the more comfortable they become. Until one day without realizing it you reach a glorious plateau. Wearing those shoes is like wearing no shoes at all. The more scuffed they get, the more you love them and the more you can't imagine life without them.

Tahir Shah

Country, Shoes, One Day

Tahir Shah (2009). “In Arabian Nights”, p.29, Random House

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Lured by the wilderness, and by the chance of spotting rare desert elephants, a few intrepid tourists make their way to the Skeleton Coast each year. It's just about as remote as any tourist destination on earth, but one that pays fabulous dividends.

Tahir Shah

Skeletons, Years, Elephants

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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.

Tahir Shah

Country, Moving, Two

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Visit Cape Town and history is never far from your grasp. It lingers in the air, a scent on the breezy, an explanation of circumstance that shaped the Rainbow People. Stroll around the old downtown and it's impossible not to be affected by the trials and tribulations of the struggle. But, in many ways, it is the sense of triumph in the face of such adversity that makes the experience all the more poignant.

Tahir Shah

Struggle, Adversity, Air

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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.

Tahir Shah

Waiting, Village, Dangerous

Tahir Shah (2013). “House of the Tiger King Paperback”, p.88, Lulu.com

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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.

Tahir Shah

Real, Important, Stories

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There’s nothing quite like a good quest for getting your blood pumping.

Tahir Shah

Travel, Blood, Quests

Tahir Shah “In Search of King Solomon's Mines, Dyslexic edition”, Lulu.com

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As a travel writer I've specialized in gritty, fearful destinations, the kind of places that make a reader's hair stick on end.

Tahir Shah

Travel, Fear, Hair

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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

Travel, Opposites, Cities

Tahir Shah (2013). “Sorcerer's Apprentice paperback”, p.161, Lulu.com

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In India everything has a use and a value.

Tahir Shah

India, Use, Values

FaceBook post by Tahir Shah from Apr 16, 2013

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The mere mention of the Farakka Express, which jerks its way eastward each day from Delhi to Calcutta, is enough to throw even a seasoned traveller into fits of apoplexy. At a desert encampment on Namibia's Skeleton Coast, a hard-bitten adventurer had downed a peg of local fire-water then told me the tale. Farakka was a ghost train, he said, haunted by ghouls, Thuggees, and thieves. Only a passenger with a death wish would go anywhere near it.

Tahir Shah

Fire, Ghouls, Skeletons

Tahir Shah (2013). “Sorcerer's Apprentice paperback”, p.39, Lulu.com

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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.

Tahir Shah

Fear, Darkness, Vulnerable

Tahir Shah (2009). “In Arabian Nights”, p.35, Random House

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The rain of Madre de Dios is similar to that of the Amazon, but there is a petrifying aspect to it, as if it seeks to wound rather than to nurture.

Tahir Shah

Fear, Rain, Dio

Tahir Shah (2013). “House of the Tiger King Paperback”, p.111, Lulu.com

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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

Fear, Rip, Brain

Tahir Shah (2013). “House of the Tiger King Paperback”, p.65, Lulu.com

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There comes a stage at which a man would rather die cleanly by a bullet than by the unknown terror of the phantom in the forest.

Tahir Shah

Fear, Men, Bullets

Tahir Shah (2013). “House of the Tiger King, Dyslexic edition”, p.9, Lulu.com

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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

Travel, Team, Sixteen

Tahir Shah (2013). “House of the Tiger King, Dyslexic edition”, p.282, Lulu.com

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Close your senses and the imagination comes alive. It's inside us all, dulled by endless television reruns and by a society that reins in fantasy as something not to be trusted, something to be purged. But it's in there, deep inside, a spark waiting to set a touch-paper alight.

Tahir Shah

Imagination, Waiting, Television

Tahir Shah (2009). “In Arabian Nights”, p.71, Random House

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A cross between a foreign legion boot-camp and a secret-society initiation ritual, the ordeals were grounded in pain. One thing was obvious: the agenda, which was dedicated to grave discomfort, had been drawn up by a passionate sadist.

Tahir Shah

Pain, Secret, Passionate

Tahir Shah (2013). “Sorcerer's Apprentice paperback”, p.92, Lulu.com

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To be selfless, you would give charity anonymously, walj softly on the earth, and look out for others-even total strangers-before you look out for yourself. For the Arab mind, the self is an obstacle, an impediment, in humanity's quest foe real progress.

Tahir Shah

Real, Self, Giving

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Foras Road has a sordid reputation (…) Old crones sat in doorways, while their daughters were pushed out to earn money. It is intriguing that a society which is very covert with sexuality should be so straightforward about prostitution.

Tahir Shah

Daughter, Doorways, Reputation

FaceBook post by Tahir Shah from Apr 18, 2013

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Searching for a lost city is a particularly European obsession.

Tahir Shah

Cities, Obsession, Lost

Tahir Shah (2013). “House of the Tiger King, Dyslexic edition”, p.34, Lulu.com

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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. With such a book the impact isn't necessarily obvious at first...but the more you read it and re-read it, and live with it, and travel with it, the more it speaks to you, and the more you realize that you cannot live without that book. It's then that the wisdom hidden inside, the seed, is passed on.

Tahir Shah

Book, Impact, Blood

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In moments of great uncertainty on my travels, I have always felt that something is protecting me, that i will come to no harm.

Tahir Shah

Moments, Harm, Felt

Tahir Shah (2013). “In Search of King Solomon's Mines, paperback edition”, p.68, Lulu.com

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Born: November 16, 1966
Occupation: Author
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