There is something about a good, pithy quotation that appeals to many people. It is the succinctness of such things that give them their appeal, the summing up of a broad thought in a very few words. While it does not do to overuse them, there are some kinds of writing in which the occasional quotation adds usefully: ‘I always have a quotation for everything – it saves original thinking’ – (Dorothy L Sayers).
They can be useful in other ways too. Reading an apt quotation can put a particular slant on something that can help your writing and take you in a particular, and perhaps different, direction. So far, so general. How does this affect travel writing? There is no lack of good quotations linked to travel, for example I love this: ‘She went up the Nile as far as the first crocodile’ – (Samuel Butler). Indeed it was seeing this in a lovely book, Off the Beaten Track – a traveller’s anthology compiled by Laura Stoddart (Orion Publishing), which prompted this column. That quotation set me thinking: avoidance of crocodiles (at least up close) seems pretty sensible, indeed avoidance might be a theme that would enliven many a piece of travel writing, prompting thoughts of raucous children on flights, Ryanair, and more.