“Contractions, 'U' for 'you' and the like are wonderful to make communication brief and efficient - but we wouldn't want all our talk to be only brief and efficient. Taking pauses out of language would be like taking the net away from a tennis game. Where would all the fun go?”

English-born essayist and novelist

Pico Iyer is an English-born essayist and novelist known chiefly for his travel writing. He is best known for books about crossing cultures and for essays shaped by life between places. His work includes Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk, and The Global Soul. He has also written for Time, Harper's, The New York Review of Books, and The New York Times, and his writing often returns to travel, identity, and cultural exchange.