Objects have a way of penetrating the lives of all people. Some individuals tend to accumulate more things than others, but regardless of the degree of mobility in their lives, no one is entirely devoid of objects.

The chimpanzee uses sticks and stones as tools, but does not accumulate possessions. Humans accumulate. And the things to which they are most connected serve no useful purpose. Instead, they are symbols of emotional anchoring.

The initial ambition of Chatwin was "to write a kind of 'Anatomy of Movement,' with references to the man who sits quietly in a room" by Pascal. When a title needed to be decided for this book, the unforgettable phrase of his was deemed an appropriate headline for this selection of texts that so admirably expresses how deeply the thought of mobility intrigued Bruce Chatwin throughout his life.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]