Self-consciousness kills communication.

I would like travelers, especially American travelers, to travel in a way that broadens their perspective, because I think Americans tend to be some of the most ethnocentric people on the planet. It's not just Americans, it's the big countries. It's the biggest countries that tend to be ethnocentric or ugly. There are ugly Russians, ugly Germans, ugly Japanese and ugly Americans. You don't find ugly Belgians or ugly Bulgarians, they're just too small to think the world is their norm.

As a traveler, I've often found that the more a culture differs from my own, the more I am struck by its essential humanity.

Be fanatically positive and militantly optimistic. If something is not to your liking, change your liking.