SOURCE: Thubron, Colin, and Gayle Feldman. “The Art of Traveling Well.” Publishers Weekly 217, no. 9 (28 February 2000): 54-5.

In the following interview, Thubron discusses how he became a travel writer and how he approaches his work.

Not all travel writers travel equally well from one side of the Atlantic to the other, even if the subtlety of their observations and seductiveness of their words argue that they should.

The name Colin Thubron resonates far less in America than the names of British and American peers such as Jonathan Raban, Paul Theroux, Bill Bryson, Jan Morris or the late Bruce Chatwin. Yet in his native England the long, lanky man with the boyish shock of hair, grave face and light voice is recognized as one of the best literary traveling companions a reader can find.

In eight works spanning more than three decades, he's delved into Central Asia and China (The...