“To write well about travel requires an emotional attachment to the idea that life is composed of a series of shifts. Being an immigrant, or someone with roots in more than one culture, helps. But really all it takes is being an emotional immigrant. The next place you land should seem as real to you, if not more real, than the place you left behind.”

Taken from Gary Shteyngart’s piece, The Makings of a Travel Writer, in the January 2014 issue of Travel + Leisure.

(Sound advice, even if the place you left behind is home and the place you’ve landed is Dar es Salaam.)