Quotes From "In Arabian Nights: A Caravan Of Moroccan Dreams" By Tahir Shah

My father used to tell me that stories offer the listener a chance to escape but, more importantly, he said, they provide people with a chance to maximize their minds. Suspend ordinary constraints, allow the imagination to be freed, and we are charged with the capability of heighetned thought. Learn to use your eyes as if they are your ears, he said, and you become connected with the ancient heritage of man, a dream world for the waking mind. Tahir Shah

Real terror is a crippling experience. You sweat so much that your skin goes all wrinkly like when you've been in the bath all afternoon. And then the scent of your sweat changes. It smells like cat pee, no doubt from the adrenalin. However hard you wash, it won't come off. It smothers you, as your muscles become frozen with acid and your mind paralysed by despair. Tahir Shah

Close your senses and the imagination comes alive. It's inside us al, dulled by endless television reruns and by a society that reins in fantasy as something not to be trusted, something to be purged. But it's in there, deep inside, a spark waiting to set a touch-paper alight. Tahir Shah

Believe, and what was impossible becomes possible what at first was hidden becomes visible. Tahir Shah

To Succeed, you must reach for the stars, and let your imagination find its own path Tahir Shah

We had the kind of conversations that only great friends can ever share. They were touched with magic. Tahir Shah

I believe that Marrakech ought to be earned as a destination. The journey is the preparation for the experience. Reaching it too fast derides it, makes it a little less easy to understand. Tahir Shah

Real travel is not about the highlights with which you dazzle your friends once you're home. It's about the loneliness, the solitude, the evenings spent by yourself, pining to be somewhere else. Those are the moments of true value. You feel half proud of them and half ashamed and you hold them to your heart. Tahir Shah

Settling into a new country is like getting used to a new pair of shoes. At first they pinch a little, but you like the way they look, so you carry on. The longer you have them, the more comfortable they become. Until one day without realizing it you reach a glorious plateau. Wearing those shoes is like wearing no shoes at all. The more scuffed they get, the more you love them and the more you can't imagine life without them. Tahir Shah

My father used to say that stories are part of the most precious heritage of mankind. Tahir Shah

For my father there was no sharper way to understand a country than by listening to its stories. Tahir Shah

At the dealership, I pulled out the sieve and toyed with it threateningly. When the salesman was ready for me, I held it up, told him I was not a tourist and demanded a large discount. Tahir Shah

The ants are bad" The Bear"the ants?" Tahir" Do not be fooled. They look very small, so harm you don't think of then at all. Then years. Then one day you wake up, and your home has fallen down." Osman. Tahir Shah

Stories are a communal currency of humanity. Tahir Shah

My father never told us how the stories worked. He didn't reveal the layers, the nuggets of information, the fragments of truth and fantasy. He didn't need to -- because, given the right conditions, the stories activated, sowing themselves. Tahir Shah

Because there is no challenge, there is no reason to work hard. And with no reason to work hard, we all have become lazy. Lazy people are like cancer. They spread. Before you know it, the entire country is destroyed. Tahir Shah

There is nothing like a train journey for reflection. Tahir Shah

These days no one challenges us, ' he said. 'And because there is no challenge, there is no reason to work hard. And with no reason to work hard, we have all become lazy. Tahir Shah