Pico Iyer
Pico Iyer
Siddharth Pico Raghavan Iyer, known as Pico Iyer, is a British-born essayist and novelist of Indian origin, best known for his travel writing. He is the author of numerous books on crossing cultures including Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk and The Global Soul. An essayist for Time since 1986, he also publishes regularly in Harper's, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, and many other publications...
NationalityIndian
ProfessionWriter
CountryIndia
easily entered entirely japan manhattan moved movies online rural survive till trip
I've yet to use a cellphone, and I've never tweeted or entered Facebook. I try not to go online till my day's writing is finished, and I moved from Manhattan to rural Japan in part so I could more easily survive for long stretches entirely on foot, and every trip to the movies would be an event.
perhaps technology
The one thing perhaps that technology hasn't always given us is a sense of how to make the wisest use of technology.
people
Places have charisma, in short, as much as people do.
car gives volumes walks worry
Not having a car gives me volumes not to think or worry about, and makes walks around the neighborhood a daily adventure.
appear gone knowing
Like teenagers, we appear to have gone from knowing nothing about the world to knowing too much all but overnight.
life nor realm religion tourist yoga
I've never meditated in my life. I don't practice yoga nor any religion. I'm a tourist on the realm of stillness.
I think the world is always going to be as diverse as it always has been.
canada curve global great
Certainly, I think Canada is many years ahead of the curve and still the great global pioneer.
dizzy everybody information
Almost everybody I know has this sense of overdosing on information and getting dizzy living at post-human speeds.
anyway begin clutter company hear hours prejudices recall taking voice
It's only by taking myself away from clutter and distraction that I can begin to hear something out of earshot and recall that listening is much more invigorating than giving voice to all the thoughts and prejudices that anyway keep me company twenty-four hours a day.
begin best change changing heads imagination inside life memory might takes
I sometimes think that so much of our life takes place inside our heads - in memory or imagination or interpretation or speculation - that if I really want to change my life, I might best begin by changing my mind.
almost doubt faith life outside reminds stands
Writing reminds you of how much there is in your life that stands outside your explanations. In that way, it's almost a journey into faith and doubt at once.
fewer found hours less recent time wherever
Wherever we are, any time of night or day, our bosses, junk-mailers, our parents can get to us. Sociologists have actually found that in recent years Americans are working fewer hours than 50 years ago, but we feel as if we're working more. We have more and more time-saving devices, but sometimes, it seems, less and less time.
charting define grew home imagine means ourselves running
When we are kids, we imagine that to define ourselves or to find ourselves means charting your own individuality, making your own destiny, and actually running away from your parents and your home and what you grew up with. Of course, as the years go on, we come to find that we become our parents.