Dad

I've been reading Tom Bissel's brilliant collection of essays, Magic Hours, and came across this nugget on travel writers:

"Travel writers are seldom scholars. They are, by inclination if not definition, transients and dilettantes. All that can save the travel writer and redeem his or her often inexpert perceptions of foreign people and places is curiosity, a willingness to be uncertain, an essential emotional generosity, and an ability to write."