IN HIS OWN WORDS

I write from my experience. I write from my research. I write from my imagination. . . . I write about hotels and restaurants and towns that I never visited. I write about hotels and restaurants and towns that I feel guilty about not visiting. I write about hotels and restaurants and towns that I never visited and could care less about. . . . I write about things that I learn about as I am putting them down on the page. I write about things that I still don't understand, even after I've written about them.

-- From "Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?" by Thomas Kohnstamm